Maintains that the ways in which students react, absorb, and communicate new information are defined by their perception of the requirements and expectations of their surrounding situation. This information is particularly relevant in designing and implementing school-based drug prevention programs. Provides examples of various situational-based…

Examines some aspects of English and Lebanese-Arabic adult responses to child answers, exploring the way the use of preferred communication strategies reflects culturally based assumptions about learning and guiding learning. The article argues that adults who regularly deal with young children develop preferred interactive strategies deriving…

Reviews three books with the common theme that the way language operates in connection with juridical processes of various kinds gives ground for complaint. A subsidiary theme is that academic language studies might, in some cases, provide the appropriate theoretical underpinnings for the examination of the problems in question, and perhaps lead…

Contrasts teacher-student interactions in typical teacher-fronted second language classrooms with the organization of talk across a variety of alternate educational participant structures--a teacher-student conference, small group work, the making of a class video, and a problem-solving interaction in a computer lab--that deviate from the…

Discusses the role of the administrator in communication programs. Considers educational goals and values of students; variations in enrollments; historically under-represented student populations; and faculty turnover and replacement. (MS)

Offers observations on the changing role of the department chair and the issues communication departments will face in the future, including more diverse, non-traditional student populations, smaller budgets, and faculty replacement. (MS)

Uses oral theory to examine the relationship between cognition and orality. Analyzes how the electronic media mimic the kind of interaction between speaker and audience characteristic of preliterate cultures. Argues that Ronald Reagan's effectiveness on television stems from his use of rhetorical structures characteristic of preliterate oral…

Describes a Dutch study of changes in teacher communication styles during their careers, combining findings from longitudinal and cross-sectional analyses of teachers' and students' perceptions of teacher interpersonal behavior. Survey results indicate the changes are found mainly in dominant behavior, whereas cooperative behavior remains…

Focuses on the use of inexplicitness by native speakers (NSs) and nonnative speakers (NNSs) engaged in English conversations, for example impromptu, uninstitutionalized discourses. Shows that a characteristic of NNSs spoken language is the inappropriate level of inexplicitness used and the ways in which inexplicitness is manifested in the…

Presents four misconceptions surrounding communicative language teaching (CLT) and discusses the reasons for their existence. These misconceptions are: (1) CLT means not teaching grammar; (2) CLT means teaching only speaking; (3) CLT means pair work, which means role play; and (4) CLT means expecting too much from the teacher. (13 references)…

Cross-border education has been growing dramatically in both English-speaking countries and non-native English-speaking countries. While more and more students, particularly from Asian countries such as Korea, China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan choose to study in English-speaking countries, many native English speakers go to Asian countries to…

The authors advocate that a high-quality curriculum is an important first step toward good teaching and successful learning. Good curriculum comes from knowing what students can do, can almost do, and need to learn how to do as readers, writers, and language users. In this book, the authors combine their experience and learning in literacy…

Second language anxiety has a debilitating effect on the oral performance of speakers of English as a second language. This article describes a research project concerning the conceptualization of second language speaking anxiety, the relationship between anxiety and second language performance, and the major reported causes of second language…

Learning can occur in a natural way when parents serve as models to their child, demonstrating how to learn, facilitating the learning process, and guiding the learner. With a teacher's guidance, parents can improve their understanding of their child's learning. Teachers can encourage parents to share wordless picture books, books with predictable…

Despite complaints from undergraduate students concerning language and pedagogical skills of international teaching assistants (ITAs), institutions of higher education continue to appoint ITAs to teach. Legislative mandates have appeared to assess and improve language and pedagogical skills of ITAs, and the academies have likewise responded with…