The guide offers over 100 classroom activities and techniques for teaching English as a second language to adults, all provided by experienced teachers who have found them useful. They are divided into ten categories: (1) activities using materials or techniques from radio, television, and print news media; (2) exercises for teaching English for…

This paper reports on a study that explored the possibility of measuring distance education classes using the Media Sensor, a device designed to sample and record various electronic impulses generated during a distance education session. Research questions explored: (1) the ability of the Media Sensor to identify patterns in the audio and video…

This study investigated the differences in language patterns in classroom conversations between university students of English for academic purposes and two native speakers: the teacher and a native English-speaking student selected to provide English speech practice. Transcripts of role-play interactions in two groups (one assisted by the…

Community college instructors and administrators need to understand teacher immediacy research and the role of immediacy in the multi-cultural classroom. Immediacy can be viewed as a combination of nonverbal behaviors used to accentuate a verbal message and reduce physical and psychological distance between interactants. Janis Andersen's research…

By offering children the opportunity to speak up in the classroom, educators help build a vital foundation in open-mindedness that is essential for critical thinking. Teaching children to be critical thinkers requires that teachers listen to what children say, encourage them to talk, and not insist that they share the teacher's beliefs. Young…

The dialogue journal procedure, which involves written turn-taking between a teacher and a student, is examined in terms of how the journal process can prepare students for later oral communication. The use of the dialogue journal with four distinct student populations (hearing impaired or deaf, learning disabled, bilingual, and…

An analysis of utterances made by children and teachers in Norwegian day care centers over a period of several years suggests that from a communicative and functional viewpoint, young children's use of language depends on: (1) the kind of play activitiy; and (2) the preschool teacher's participation and language, which reflects her attitude and…

The first major purpose of this paper is to show the ways in which teachers can benefit from research and the application of research findings to classroom interactions with children. The second major purpose is to examine research findings on the quality and characteristics of teachers' interactions with children by looking at findings on…

The faculty at an urban school serving prekindergarten through fifth grade were concerned about poor teacher performance on an area of the Texas Teacher Appraisal System (TTAS) that assessed their ability to present information accurately and to explain content and/or learning tasks clearly. Responding to their concern, this document describes an…

Using a comparative and historical approach, this paper examines linguistic perspectives on minority education, specifically language-based explanations for the reading problems of working class minority group students. The paper first discusses the ways in which competence and performance theories of language treat the relation between language…

A study analyzed some of the characteristics of junior high students' oral communication behavior that accompanied the assignment, production, and evaluation of a writing task. It involved fieldwork in three junior high school English classes--first in a six-month pilot study and then in a year-long period of observation. Through direct…

The editors of "Practical Application of Research (PAR)," a newsletter of Phi Delta Kappa's Center on Evaluation, Development, and Research, reviewed all of the research done since 1971 on the subject of instructional clarity. Instructional clarity was defined as the interaction between what a teacher does or says and the student's…

How the social organization of the classroom, including teacher and student roles, patterns of interaction, and norms extended or constrained students' learning opportunities was examined. A total of 6 English, science, and social studies classes in grades 6 and 7 were observed for the first month of the school year; activities in the school were…

One of a series of six portraits of high school literature classrooms, this paper gives a detailed, evocative characterization of how one "master teacher" introduced, undertook, and guided the study of literature, focusing in particular on how the teacher interacted with students in the context of discussion of a literary work in class.…

Drawing on current research into the learning environment as well as into the reading process and the acquisition of literacy, this book is designed to help elementary and early childhood teachers arrange classroom time environments that encourage children's growth in literacy. Following a brief statement of purpose, the book is divided into the…