A study of classroom interaction in Ontario's French immersion programs is summarized. Transcripts of classroom interactions were analyzed for teaching practices that tend to decrease or encourage student speech. Results suggest that the use of language in immersion classrooms is not significantly different from language use in regular classes. It…

The social contexts students need to encourage productive collaboration in their writing can be provided by attending to various design features of the English microcomputer laboratory. Collaborative learning offers a powerful alternative to traditional classroom teaching methods and helps students become part of a community that approximates the…

Three essays concerning second language classroom activities that promote learning of communication skills are presented. In "From Manipulation to Communication" (Renate A. Schulz), the importance of establishing minimal communicative objectives for classroom instruction skills is discussed, specifying situations in which students have to…

A quality circle approach was implemented at Valley Forge Military Junior College during two semesters of an American History survey course. Student input into the academic progress of the course was at the root of the quality circle experiment, with students determining the type and frequency of written assignments, course structure, the…

Teaching always occurs in a rhetorical context. It involves discovering and maintaining a proper balance among three elements at work in any communicative effort: the available arguments about the subject itself, the interests and peculiarities of the audience, and the voice of the speaker. Teacher management of the classroom, writing assignments,…

A study related the communication responsiveness of instructors to the affective and cognitive outcomes of students in basic speech communication courses. Specifically, the study investigated both the instructors' overall responsiveness and their responsiveness as climate makers. The communication responsiveness of instructors was measured by the…

The popular model of collaborative learning views classrooms as contexts where nonmembers of "valued" communities become members by mastering accepted knowledge, discourse forms, and methods. Although attractive to educators, this model allows only for changes in individual students, not in "valued" communities. Further, its…

Asking questions in class can be a routine effort for some students, but many find this particular act to be an extraordinary task. Research demonstrates that at least 15 to 20% of all students suffer from debilitating apprehension when speaking. The number who experience moderate nervousness may be even higher. As a result of not asking…

The guide contains suggestions for University of Tennessee, Knoxville foreign teaching assistants to improve their command of spoken English. The first section offers four speech improvement suggestions requiring little or no extra time, including speaking English as much and as often as possible, imitating native speakers, asking for the correct…

A study was conducted to analyze the role that nonverbal communication plays in classroom climate. A 40-item classroom communication climate questionnaire was developed, and administered to 76 students and 8 teachers to determine its reliability and validity. After several changes and deletions, the final version of the questionnaire was…

Research indicates four sources for the use of the first language in the second language classroom. Environment and the learners cannot be easily controlled, but materials and teachers can. The goal of such control is to increase second language input primarily at the macro level for reading, listening, and speaking practice, thus speeding up the…

The entries in this annotated bibliography center on the effects of teachers' attitudes and behaviors towards black elementary students in integrated classrooms. The first section cites research on interactions in the classroom: specifically, self-fulfilling teacher expectations and behaviors communicating such expectations. Entries in the second…

A study was conducted to identify teacher behaviors that college students deem unethical, measure the strength of student attitudes toward the 20 most frequently mentioned behaviors, and measure the degree to which the students have personally found the 20 behaviors to be problems. The first part of the study elicited examples of unethical teacher…

Assuming that teacher effectiveness and nonverbal communication are interrelated, an analysis of nonverbal communication and teacher assessment of nonverbal action is appropriate. A review of the literature indicates that nonverbal behaviors may be examined by the impressionistic and the quantitative methods. Each of these methods generates…

Notes are presented on classroom organization, discipline, motivation, and teacher concern for use with instructional radio. Attributes of a regular classroom and a good radio classroom are compared, including teacher/radio positioning, materials organization and presentation, the use of sound and silence, cueing and voice use, demonstrations,…