Using a social constructivist theoretical framework, the case of Ella demonstrates how one fifth-grade, African-American student who participated in a writing process classroom appropriated the dialogue from social interaction and transformed it to use in her own texts and in her talk with others. During the teacher-student writing conferences,…

This book contains a collection of self-instructional modules for college faculty and teaching assistants. The modules address key aspects of teacher-learner interaction, including setting of course objectives, preparing lectures, conducting classroom discussions, preparing various types of tests (multiple choice, true-false, matching test items,…

This paper describes a strategy that was developed to help elementary school students to become more interested, involved, and accepted in school. The strategy involved a pen pal project in which students wrote to other students at an elementary school who were in other classes and at different grade levels. The idea was presented as a fun…

An ethnographic study examined instructor uses of control, immediacy, and affinity-seeking behaviors in a large college lecture class. A class of 140 college sophomores was observed for 10 weeks, in an attempt to understand in a situational and non-quantitative manner, what instructor behaviors motivate students toward cognitive and affective…

In a study at Memphis State University (Tennessee), international students training as teaching assistants were taught the importance of discourse markers and other techniques for communicating in the classroom. The discourse markers are verbal cues that serve important pedagogical functions such as separating ideas, indicating temporal…

Although recent classroom research on second language acquisition has begun to focus on student discourse, there are still few studies which examine student questions and their influence in the classroom. Based on multiple observations of four classrooms in an intensive English program, the researchers investigate the factors that work together to…

Personality has largely been ignored or written off as a variable in second language learning. However, it should be considered as an alternative research perspective for four reasons: (1) the writing off of personality variables in second language research has been unjustified, and results from giving credibility to studies based on ill-conceived…

This study evaluated 90 junior high level public school teachers' interactive verbal behavior in response to three seating arrangements (row, herringbone, and u-shaped) across four dimensions: frequency of indirect teacher talk, frequency of direct teacher talk, frequency of student talk, and silence or confusion. Results indicate that: (1)…

Noting that conversation between adults and young children is a well-known stimulus to language development, but that conversation is seldom fully used in the classroom, this paper argues that conversations can and should be used more. It presents a range of research findings and classroom examples to support that argument. Chapter 1 examines the…

Facing an increasingly heterogeneous society, teachers need to be communicators. Most of human communication is nonverbal, but nonverbal behaviors are largely culture-bound. Teachers' sensitivity and understanding of students' nonverbal behaviors and their competence in sending correct nonverbal messages can make a difference in classroom…

Reading is an area of the curriculum that contains many opportunities for students to develop self-esteem. Three common procedures used in the classroom, however, are likely to threaten students' self-esteem: required oral reading; team selection and the aspect of competing and declaring winners and losers; and question and answer procedures.…

A study analyzed in detail one 37-minute classroom literature discussion to better understand how to foster students' critical reasoning. It investigated the characteristics of classroom interactions that support students in the process of responding to literature, the roles of the participants, and how the teacher can structure the tasks and use…

The RE-FOCUS Program at Ruskin High School in Kansas City, Missouri, helps at-risk students to redefine their efforts in social behavior and academic success. When inappropriate behavior occurs and the classroom teacher needs assistance, the student is taken out of his/her regular school environment and assigned in the RE-FOCUS room. The program,…

Education may be seen as a form of verbal communication. Opinions about the part language plays in pedagogical communication differ according to the emphasis placed on: (1) the teacher (i.e., language as a means of transferring knowledge, as in the traditional teacher-centered concept); (2) the students (or language as a means of learning); or (3)…

This paper examines remediation as the product of perceptions and beliefs about literacy and learning. It illustrates some ways teachers inadvertently participate in constructing inaccurate and limiting notions of learners as being cognitively defective and in need of "remedy," and thus limit classroom learning. It combines an empirical,…