Summarizes two studies concerning the attitudes of children aged 8-11 about being an artist and being creative, and concerning the effects of teacher behaviors and classroom verbal communication on student creativity. Discusses implications for camp activities in terms of camper exploration of ideas and materials and staff behaviors that encourage…

Illustrates subtleties and complexities of gender in language education, and suggests implications of research for educational practice. Demonstrates alternatives for research into gender and language classrooms, showing both how the more familiar approaches can be fruitfully developed and how researchers can go beyond them. (Author/VWL)

Describes techniques that help students become reflective about their learning. Describes how involving students as coresearchers who examine collectively the workings of their classroom supports the goal of learning to reflect, and allows teachers and students to learn to work together. Describes how this worked in a 12th-, 5th-, and 2nd-grade…

Reports the case studies of three trilingual elementary school children in separate Vancouver (British Columbia) early French immersion classes, focusing on themes emerging from analysis related to the children's literacy practices and contexts for language learning, and the teachers' perceptions of these students and representations of…

The University of Wisconsin Madison has a speech code that punishes faculty who make offensive remarks in the classroom. The code, declared unconstitutional in 1991 by a federal judge, has now been revised by a panel of professors, administrators, and students to allow faculty to teach controversial subjects, even if some students are offended in…

A discussion of teacher talk, particularly in the context of language immersion, looks at its nature, content, and form. A study reported here indicates the importance of discourse modification by the teacher and points up the need for further research on the effects of teacher talk on second-language learning. (Contains 23 references.)…

The issues that arise in a college course on multiculturalism can touch students very personally and may be a first opportunity for many students to talk face-to-face about important social issues. Anticipating when students may become defensive, angry, hurt, or when conflict might erupt will help faculty know when to lower or raise the…

Summarizes some feminist critiques of science which leads to an investigation of the role that language plays within science. Also explores the ramifications of gendered discourse for the teaching of science and mathematics. Contains 40 references. (Author/PVD)

Uses the foreign language autobiography to explore the perceptions of a group of adult foreign language learners toward a broad range of issues related to classroom atmosphere and instruction. Qualitative analysis of student writings revealed three categories of data: classroom interaction, perceived level of success, and attributions of success…

Focused on the role of subject-matter in second language (L2) learning. Sought to identify ways in which teachers modified classroom interaction about subject-matter content in order to assist the input, feedback, and production needs of L2 learners and to promote their attention to developmentally difficult relationships of L2 form and meaning…

After interviews with seven English special needs assistants found that they lacked clear ideas about expectations and reported poor classroom communication, the assistants were attached to one subject area rather than to specific pupils. Results found the assistants all felt happier in their work and accepted as members of the team. (Author/CR)

Examines K-2 teachers' perceptions and evaluations of how students (who spoke marginalized or stigmatized varieties of English) in a low-income, multiethnic, inner-city school answer classroom questions. Finds ambiguity in teacher questions which created problems for students accustomed to different discourse practices. Works with the teachers to…

In two original articles from the inaugural issue of "Topics in Language Disorders", Berlin, Blank, and Rose proposed a model of dialogue complexity on the basis of a continuum of abstractness defined as perceptual-language distance; Carlson, Gruenewald, and Nyberg proposed a triadic model of academic concepts, student language, and…

Research on traditional classrooms paints a picture of teachers controlling talk patterns and of students producing minimal amounts of mainly procedural talk, recitation-type talk, or both. Often this bleak state of affairs is attributed to teachers' overreliance on inauthentic display questions--questions that impose tight thematic control and…

This study examined the relation between language skills, gender, and relational/physical aggression. Language skills of 100 preschoolers were assessed with 3 standardized instruments. Relational/physical aggression was rated by the children's teachers. Results indicated that relational and physical aggression tended to increase as language scores…