Describes 192 studies published between July and December 1978 which deal with bilingualism and bidialectalism; language and verbal learning; literature, humanities, and media; teacher education; and written and oral communication at all educational levels. (DD)

Presents abstracts of 10 documents and 11 journal articles representing recent research related to early childhood education, policy and educational provision in Canada, Italy, Latin America, Caribbean, Great Britain, Japan, Africa, Sweden, El Salvador, and Australia. Topics include child labor and basic education, culture and curriculum, social…

To help instructors teach students basic information retrieval skills, librarians at the University of Toledo (OH) developed a bibliographic instruction program, "Teach the Teachers," to be used in the English department's composition classes. This article discusses the development of the program and cooperation between librarians and…

This exploratory study evaluated the efforts of one sixth-grade student with learning disabilities to use voice-input technology in written communication. The major problem encountered was the inability of the program to recognize more than 74% of the boy's utterances, thus requiring keyboard correction procedures. The technology is seen to have…

Investigates whether exposure to discourse elements affects idea production in novice writers. Results indicate that students given discourse prompts generated significantly more ideas than those given purely motivational prompts and that they spent more time generating ideas, suggesting that instruction in discourse elements may prove beneficial.…

This article presents insights from teachers nationwide who have experimented with writing workshops, describing what they see as the essential elements to their success (setting the tone, teacher-student and student-student communication, reflective thinking, high expectations, modeling from favorite authors, and working hard). Software, classic…

Argues that few new techniques for teaching remedial writing courses work. Suggests that learning styles, a research-based teaching approach, has demonstrated statistically significant results. Explains that learning styles aims to provide learning strategies that are compatible with individual learners. Reports on two experiments conducted at an…

Provides information on how to spot the kinds of errors that occur in student compositions as the result of word-for-word translations from on-line translation programs such as "Babelfish." Provides a brief history of such programs, explains how they function, and offers solutions to this problem facing foreign language teachers. (Author/VWL)

Describes an exploratory study of eighth-grade students and their use of online primary sources for an oral history unit on family farming. Highlights include using photographs from the Depression era to write stories; use of bibliographic information; higher level thinking skills; use of humor; and implications for secondary social studies and…

Presents information learned from the planning and implementation of a Writer's Academy. Describes structures for writing as well as six useful lessons learned pertaining to: (1) teacher conferences; (2) peer conferences; (3) exploring the world; (4) writing with students; (5) valuing the process and the product to address national standards; and…

Despite research to the contrary, most college teachers assume students have more basic knowledge then they do, and they assign essays accordingly. One instructor discusses the poor results of students' knowledge testing, noting his institution's low admission requirements and questioning today's lax standards in the face of the information age.…

Discusses some of the issues of choice and diversity in multicultural writing and reading assignments for secondary students. Draws on two research studies, one on high school students and one on middle school students. Notes that both studies found a mixture of desire for and discomfort with plurality in the classroom. (TB)

Describes teaching freshman composition and rhetoric via e-mail as a distance education course at Tomball Community College (Texas). Discusses student and instructor responsibilities, e-mail procedures, problems encountered (lack of time, and managing disk and mailbox space), and benefits (reduced paper use, typed corrections, accurate records,…

This article explains how teachers can use electronic portfolios of students' work to document learner progress. It considers different file formats for storing student work, describes steps to creating an electronic portfolio, and discusses an art and literature electronic magazine created by one school featuring work from student portfolios. (CR)

Outlines the procedures of the Patchwork Text coursework assignment format, discussed in the articles of this special issue, and presents a general justification of their current educational importance. Reviews current literature on assessment processes in higher education and discusses work on the nature of "academic literacies." Compares the…