This digest provides a historical review of some current literary theories and practices which developed from contemporary philosophy. Structuralism, associated with Ferdinand de Saussure and Claude Levi-Strauss, with a seemingly scientific view of language and culture posited a systemic "center" that organized and sustained an entire…

A collaborative faculty project was something of a failure for one instructor. About a year ago, the instructor invited everyone in the department to meet in her office every third week to talk about teaching literature and composition. The immediate concern was the use of writing in three general education literature courses that had been…

The essays in this collection discuss the "image" as both product and process. Representing such diverse disciplines as rhetoric, composition, clinical psychology, journalism, photography, communication, education, and sociology, the essays describe how images function and how they are linked with language and explore the role of images…

The idea of a high level of literacy being important to holding the social fabric of the country together seems to be shared by policy-makers and professors, although they may disagree on the definition of literacy. Policy-makers like high tech; professors like book learning. Current trends in higher education reflect society's increasing…

Based on the idea that the study of postmodernism is a useful and valuable pursuit because it engages students in discussions of fundamental questions about the individual's situation in the world, this book takes an interdisciplinary approach to address postmodernism effectively. The book conceives postmodernism as a widespread cultural…

Drawing data from audiotaped lessons with 10 native-speaker English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) teachers and 12 EFL learners of varied linguistic backgrounds, a study explored some of the ways in which classroom talk by learners is collaboratively built to repair errors, misunderstandings, and non-communication. Focus is on both explicit and…

Designed to help middle and secondary level teachers create spaces for students to explore multiple perspectives and interpretations of their texts, this brochure offers teachers who have experienced classroom talk that leads to gender divisiveness among students an opportunity to consider new ways of thinking about such talk. The brochure…

A study explored the implications of a rhetorical approach to professional education in business--specifically, how a social constructivist view of language might change how students learn concepts and theories of business. It focused on undergraduate education in management, with data drawn from a case study of a student in a pilot version of an…

A study examined the difficulties Mainland Chinese students encountered in the process of adjusting to American culture. Subjects were 10 Mainland Chinese students enrolling in a mid-size public university, 8 females and 2 males. The length of time in America was from 10 months to 3 years, the average age was 27.9, and 6 were married. In-depth…

The phenomenon of language is discussed and suggestions are made for using its unique aspects to enhance classroom second language teaching and learning. Five main points are made about language: (1) it differs in kind, not simply in degree, from other species' communicative behaviors; (2) the wonder of human language is rivaled by only one other…

According to this paper, the biggest hazard of a private language (or professional jargon) may not be that it obscures efforts to communicate with those outside the business, but rather that it successfully communicates ideas never intended. The paper explores one bit of "educationese"--"safe space" or "safe place"--and reflects on what language…

American college students (N=46) were asked to assign grades to a series of words and phrases used in describing college work. The variables of sex, GPA and cognitive/semantic consistency were correlated with 30 descriptor words. The results revealed that the first canonical root was significant. Using regression to explore individual patterns, it…

A study investigated the comparability of second language (L2) listening comprehension tests by examining the effects of varying text type and assessment task on student performance. Student target language experience was an additional variable considered. Subjects were 107 beginning and 64 advanced-intermediate college-level Spanish second…

The role of the Hebrew language as a cohesive force and the history of modern Hebrew instruction are chronicled. It is proposed that despite the scattering of its speakers and periods of use only as a literary or business language, Hebrew has been a binding force for the Jewish people. It was with considerable struggle that Hebrew gained…

A discussion of language focuses on the relationship between language learning and culture learning. The first four chapters look at the cultural context of language learning, particularly in the language classroom. The second part examines culture learning through language teaching. The first chapter discusses lexical culture, or the vocabulary…