A study analyzed the communicative dynamics occurring during explicit instruction of a grammatical concept (concerning French verbs) taught within the students' Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). Analysis focused on discourse strategies used at four levels of the ZPD. (Contains 48 references.) (Author/MSE)

This article offers 12 suggestions for general educators to provide appropriate instructional and social communication to children with hearing impairments. Specific strategies include securing the student's attention, adding context, linking old information with new information, talking slowly and distinctly, and reducing syntax complexity. (DB)

Presents observations of 15-member literature discussion group in a fifth-grade classroom. Shows that even in such groups, intended to create a more democratic forum where students' voices are heard and valued, factors like gender, cultural background, and status play a role in whose ideas get expressed and are actually listened to. (SR)

Explores the amount of talk used by girls as opposed to boys in a Grade 2 English-as-a-Second-Language classroom located in British Columbia. Focus was on the amount of language used by the girls in teacher-led lessons. (Author/VWL)

Looks at learner initiative in teacher-fronted activities, and how this can influence classroom interaction. Extracts from lesson transcripts of adult evening classes in Italy are used to give precise definition of what is meant by learner initiative and to illustrate how it can change interaction patterns. (Author/VWL)

Discusses an approach to analyzing teacher talk in second-language classrooms that assumes communicative classrooms are characterized by teacher talk reflecting external communication patterns. Argues that this analysis is over-simplistic, ignoring the reality of the classroom context and the features that make for effective communication within…

Transcripts of classroom interaction illustrate how emphasis on lesson planning and communicative activities in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) teacher training, and dominance of a coursebook, had unintended consequences in three specific areas, leading to inhibition of teacher-student interaction, avoidance of genuine communicative…

Examined teacher-child and child-child talk collected as part of a longitudinal, ethnographic study of life in a vertically-grouped multilingual class in an inner-city first school in the North of England. Reveals the complex, subtle processes involved in the interactive negotiation of meanings between teachers and learners and the joint…

This article discusses traditional methods, such as the grammar-translation, and modern methods, the communicative approach, for teaching English-as-a-foreign-language in China. The relationship between linguistic accuracy and communicative competence, student-centered orientation, and the role of the teacher are highlighted. (Author/VWL)

Presents the results of a study of elementary science teaching methods. Finds that teachers participating in the study always elicit children's ideas prior to science instruction, and thus consider student ideas to be important. Also finds that students perceived that their ideas were important whether or not the teachers addressed those ideas in…

Presents an analysis of undergraduate students' experiences in and attitudes toward small group learning in chemistry. Finds that small group learning activities provide a mechanism for students to build a feeling of community in the classroom. (Contains 21 references.) (WRM)

A Korean science teachers' discursive practises were examined with a view to identifying pedagogical roles performed through his talk. Data came from the video recordings of classroom sessions where students presented their science projects and exchanged questions and answers during the presentations. Transcripts were developed and analysed in a…

This article describes the author's struggles, journey, and resolve to reform her teaching practice to align with her beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics. (Contains 6 figures.)

It is now recognised that inclusive schools must recognise and respond to the needs of learners regardless of any difficulties they may have. Similarly, the South African Constitution (1996) requires education to be "transformed and democratised in accordance with the values of human dignity, equity, human rights and freedom, non-racism and…

Much of the content-based language teaching (CBLT) literature describes the benefits to be gained by integrating content with language teaching aims and rejects the formal separation between "content" and "language" as a pedagogic necessity for language learning. This paper looks at interactions in classrooms in English schools…