Preprogram, field experience, and postprogram activities (e.g., community study skill development, communication skill development, orientation assignments, the university environment abroad, the family home-stay, work experiences, independent projects) can be used to enhance the value of cross-cultural experiences. (MSE)

Discusses strategies of social mobility involving education, occupational or residential change, and migration as well as the implications for language behavior of these strategies. The article assesses current theories of language maintenance and shift, drawing on network concepts and referring to change in an Irish-speaking community in…

Examines the relationship between cultural membership and individual language learning behavior in the development of reading strategies, using Nigerian and Chinese students studying English as a Second Language as subjects. The article concludes that whereas the reading differences between these two groups derive different factors, cultural…

Calls for attention to the importance of evaluating quality of child care in light of cultural differences and in the framework of the specific cultural context under evaluation. Proposes that this is of crucial importance because each society maintains its own definition of "ideal care" which relates to its goals and expectations about…

Maintains that the prevalence of dance in all cultures renders it particularly effective as a means to introduce multicultural education in the curriculum. Provides examples utilizing dance to illustrate multicultural concepts, as well as, integrating it into interdisciplinary instruction. Discusses reasons for the negligible status of dance. (MJP)

Explains an interdisciplinary framework for library information science, especially information retrieval, which considers sociocultural context of search terms in a way that the cognitivist information processing paradigm does not. Limitations of cognitivist information processing conceptions are discussed, as well as the possible effects of the…

Claims that the influence of Chinese culture on its kindergarten curriculum is expressed in its ideological and philosophical base as well as in its goals, content, teaching methods, organization, and evaluation. Presents traditional Chinese values and their effect on education, and describes curriculum changes that occurred in the 1980s with the…

Discusses "Te Whariki," the New Zealand Draft Curriculum Guidelines for Early Childhood Education, in relation to historical and cultural contexts. Addresses aspirations of the Maori people for their language and culture to be protected and sustained. Asserts a bicultural imperative for early childhood education curriculum. (BGC)

Argues that one method of successfully raising learners' awareness of the sociocultural rules of speaking a foreign language is to invite them to become researchers of that language. Concludes that while the acquisition of pragmatic competence is a slow process, appropriate activities enhance the learners' chances for academic, professional, and…

Discusses the issue of who owns English from the perspective of non-native Englishes in Southern Africa, with a focus on the linguistic processes underpinning the owning of English there. Suggests that claiming ownership of English in the African context means to make English carry the weight of one's African experience and to alter it to suit its…

This special section includes five articles that discuss public relations strategies for school librarians. Highlights include effective communication, including measuring and evaluating the success of public relations efforts; Web-based public relations; giving bookmarks to students; customers and cultural contexts; and successful job…

Examines Black Americans' attempts in the 1960s to achieve legitimacy and <equality>, defined as ideological commitment to promote "sameness" and "identity" explicitly through rhetoric of control. Investigates how the culturetypal rhetoric of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the counter-culture rhetoric of Malcolm X…

Analyzes John Wesley Powell's nineteenth-century survey of the U.S. intermountain west, and his subsequent report on the natural resources of the area based on both physical characteristics and cultural considerations. Discusses reactions to Powell's report. Maintains that the report is a useful classroom tool for illustrating the themes of…

Reviews four training strategies for applying socioidentity analysis to multicultural counseling; the Clarification Group (C Group); the Personal Dimensions of Difference Self-Inventory (PDD); the Multifactor Needs Assessment; and the Cultural Grid. Each highlights a slightly different aspect of the complex matrix of relationships that define the…

Examines how postwar women's magazines introduced television to the American housewife. Reveals the way television was imbricated in the gendered division of labor and leisure at home by exploring how the magazines deliberated on the problems television posed for women's domestic chores and the efficient functioning of the household. (KEH)