Tests applicability of dialogical research methods (psychosocial methods of P. Freire) to the investigation of three groups of six to eight Chicano college students. Vignettes incorporating isolation, achievement, or ethnic identity are used to initiate dialogs. Experiences of ethnicity and education from these dialogs can help improve academic…

Fourth and fifth grade learning-disabled and non-learning-disabled students, who participated in a socially mediated writing intervention emphasizing the process of writing, writing strategies, and the role of teacher-student and student-student dialogue, were compared to a similar group of students who had not participated in the intervention.…

This article is divided into two parts. The first discusses theoretical issues related to the software program introduced, and the second deals with practical issues, including technical and pedagogical considerations in implementing the program. (Author/VWL)

Studied partner and site novelty for mother-infant, stranger-infant, and mother-stranger face-to-face interactions. Found that adult-infant vocal timing measures at age 4 months did predict attachment and cognition at age 12 months. Comparison of mother-infant and stranger-infant interactions suggested the dynamics of infants' early…

The purpose of this study was to explore how parents and their young children attended to mathematical concepts as they engaged in shared book reading. Thirty-nine parents and their 4-year-old children from a culturally diverse metropolitan area were videotaped as they read "Mr. McMouse" (Lionni, 1992) and "Swimmy" (Lionni, 1963). Shared reading…

In this article, the author examines the inquiry talk of a small group of bilingual children discussing the text "Oliver Button Is a Sissy". The children raised many questions about the story and about issues of gender. The major focus of this article is on the participants' inquiry talk and the context that mediated their talk. The author uses…

The term "scaffolding" refers to adult behaviors that support and guide children's participation in activities, including speech events, enabling the children to extend the range of what they are able to do without assistance. A study examined how scaffolding behavior in support of expository discourse differed among preschool teachers in…

Child-adult dialogues are important in an interactionist approach to acquisition of language behaviors because of the scaffolding provided by adults. Different forms of scaffolding used with children with and without language impairments are reviewed, and research on scaffolding with children aged 4-6 years is reported. Discourse strategies used…

The dialogue journal procedure, which involves written turn-taking between a teacher and a student, is examined in terms of how the journal process can prepare students for later oral communication. The use of the dialogue journal with four distinct student populations (hearing impaired or deaf, learning disabled, bilingual, and…

A guide to the use of role playing in the foreign language classroom outlines in general terms what role play is, provides examples, analyzes its uses, and gives practical assistance in planning activities. The following topics are examined: aspects of role behavior (formality, register, function, attitude, para-linguistic and extra-linguistic…

Current literature on writing instruction focuses on the writing conference, which accompanies a shift in emphasis from product to process and potentially transforms the teacher's role from task master and evaluator to respondent, opening the door to greater peer interaction in literacy learning. However desirable this ideal may be, extant…

The central theory of Paulo Freire's "Pedagogy of the Oppressed" is that all human beings are capable of engaging in a dialogical encounter with their world. Application of this theory to the bitter civil war that occurred in Zimbabwe from 1972 to 1979 leads to four conclusions. First, the lack of educational opportunity for the Africans…

The laboratory tapescripts for a course in basic Pashto are transcriptions of instructions and exercises given on tape recordings made for use in a language laboratory. The course contains seven units, each consisting of five lessons. The laboratory tape to accompany each lesson contains instructions for completing exercises contained in the…

A set of instructional materials for introductory Solomon Islands Pidgin, an English-based pidgin, is designed for Peace Corps volunteer language instruction. It consists of 12 units that contain dialogues, grammar and pronunciation notes, pattern and substitution drills, lists of vocabulary and useful expressions, and exercises based on the…

Instructional materials for beginning Sanaani Arabic, a dialect used predominantly for oral communication, include 40 units consisting of text derived from recordings of spontanous conversations of native speakers in various communication situations. Some of the lesson topics are: greetings, getting acquainted, appointments, telephone…