Longitudinal videotape recordings of six young children with autism and six age- and language-matched children with Down syndrome in structured play with their mothers were analyzed. Findings of reduced expression of positive affect by autistic subjects suggest that their known deficits in attention and affective responsiveness persisted even in…

Emphasizes the importance of promoting discourse and interactions in the classroom. Presents a lesson in which discourse reveals how the teacher helps students learn by constructing their own conceptual understanding of geometric shapes. Illustrates how the teacher facilitates an atmosphere in which students take responsibility for their own…

Investigated the types of reception strategies and the frequency of their use by students of French as a second language at different levels of language proficiency, measured by an oral proficiency interview. A number of distinct strategies were identified: kinesics, global reprises, hypothesis testing in English and uptaking. Results are…

Reports on a study of 40 audiotaped reference interactions between librarians and public library users. Data analysis focused on users' problem formulation, librarians' elicitation of information from the user, unsolicited information provided by users and the effect of these factors for the outcome of the interaction. (Author/AEF)

Presents a stratified model of information retrieval interaction that views interaction as a dialog between participants (user and computer) through an interface. Discusses traditional and interaction models, and extension to relevance, user modeling, search term selection, and types of feedback in information retrieval. (AEF)

Explores the systemological approach of dialogism as a new way of couching the problem of person-machine dialog in human-computer interaction. Concludes that a human-computer interaction community reflecting upon the future of interface will gain bona fide self-awareness from conceptualizing the machine as a component of society, rather than a…

Analysis of communicative exchanges between 24 children (ages 2-3) with Down syndrome and their mothers found that the quality of children's responses was highly associated with the degree to which the mothers' requests were related to the child's current activity and matched or were below the child's current developmental level. (DB)

Psychoanalysis, which focuses on unconscious mental processes, in contrast with the aggressive rational, linear, and goal-oriented nature of legal thinking, is used as a framework for understanding the art of negotiation in legal work. It is argued that a psychoanalytic approach can help people understand how they may help or hinder themselves in…

Explored the professional knowledge that two teams of interdisciplinary teachers exchanged during their daily interactions using observation of team planning meetings, teacher interviews, and teachers' personal reflections. The following five types of mentoring among highly collaborative teachers emerged: collaborative, clerical, professional…

Examines the communicative competence of young children acquiring English and French simultaneously in the home by observing how they used their languages during separate play sessions with monolingual strangers and their bilingual parents. Findings reveal that all of the children made some accommodations linked to the monolingualism of the…

Presents a microanalysis of a segment of an adult English as a Second Language class in order to illustrate classroom interaction that combines the goals of negotiation among participants and explicit instruction on the formal features of language. The article urges teachers to microanalyze their classroom discourse in order to improve teaching…

This study examined librarian/faculty interaction at nine small college libraries and explored librarian outreach activities: serving as experts, informing others, attending social functions, serving on committees, monitoring communication networks, knowing about campus activities, and providing library instruction. Found that quality of the…

Discusses groupware, a form of computer-mediated communication that supports interaction and cooperative work among group members regardless of location. Highlights include computer-supported cooperative work; electronic mail; computer conferences; group decision support systems; an example of a classroom groupware project with undergraduates; and…

To investigate whether problem-based learning leads to conceptual change, the cognitive and metacognitive processes of a group of medical students were studied during the problem analysis phase, and their verbal communication and thinking processes were analyzed. Stimulated recall of the thinking process during the discussion detected a conceptual…

Reviews the literature on the design and evaluation of user interfaces on CD-ROM. Defines interfaces, dialogs and interaction and explores diversity in, and issues associated with, standardization in interface design for CD-ROMs. Reviews current criteria and guidelines for the evaluation of CD-ROM interfaces and proposes alternative guidelines.…