The correlation of verbal, paralinguistic, and kinesic features in the context of student-student and student-teacher interaction is studied in a semester linguistics course at Vanderbilt University. The purpose of the research is to delineate some of the major problems of group interaction in the college classroom and to show how the various…

This collection of abstracts is part of a continuing series providing information on recent doctoral dissertations. The 11 titles deal with the following topics: (1) the relation between classroom communication and teacher personality; (2) a survey of speech programs in Texas community colleges; (3) improving student responses by training teachers…

The patterns of moves in one type of teaching setting is very fixed: the teacher sets the stage for the learning, then sets tasks or asks questions for others to respond to and then comments on the performances. The problem with this pattern in language classrooms is that language is used differently in non-teaching settings. If students are…

The first part of this study explored the form of verbal exchanges in the classroom, the effects of various conditions upon the exchanges between child and adult, and the child's competence in producing questions and narratives. Research was carried out in two first-grade classrooms located in a predominately Hawaiian working-class suburb of…

This year-long study explored the linguistic and cognitive transactions of immigrant language-minority kindergarten students in the social context of classroom collaborative talk in their native language. Collaborative talk transactions were selected from 13 videotaped sessions involving 27 Hispanic kindergarten students, mostly recent arrivals…

Papers from a conference on the teaching of grammar, particularly in second language instruction, include: "Grammar: Acquisition and Use" (Richard Johnstone); "Grammar and Communication" (Brian Page); "Linguistic Progression and Increasing Independence" (Bernardette Holmes); "La grammaire? C'est du bricolage!" ("Grammar? That's Hardware!") (Barry…

In cooperative learning environments, small groups of students work together to accomplish specific pedagogical tasks, and teachers act as facilitators. One highly significant characteristic of cooperative learning that has received little consideration so far is the shift in the participation frame that takes place when students are left alone to…

Compares the activities of different groups of music teachers during rehearsals and the amount of time spent on each activity. Dependent variables included preparation time; initial teacher talk; and time in warm-up, playing of instruments, breaks, and dismissal. Discovers that student teachers talked most and allowed students to play least. (MJP)

Presents 5 activities for the K-1, 2-3, 4-5, 6-8 grade levels and for in the home in which students explore the concept of triangle through cooperative open-ended investigations. Provides related reproducible worksheets. (MDH)

Presents an ethnomethodological study of how Australian high school geography teachers and students rely on common sense knowledge and reasoning to facilitate learning. Analyzes portions of transcripts from a class activity in which students built a scale model of a city. Explains location categorization devices, illustrating how learning involves…

Based on litigation patterns, discrimination because of accent occurs most frequently in colleges and universities, particularly in the classroom. Accent discrimination cases are unlike other employment discrimination cases because successful claims generally do not depend on qualifications, but on accent's effect on job performance. Specific…

A five-year study of college classroom incivilities (CI) in large survey courses at a large research university found the most problematic to be teachers displaying aloof, distancing mannerisms; teachers discouraging student involvement with fast-paced lectures; student noisiness and indifference; students coming late, leaving early; and students'…

Challenging the Cartesian dualisms that essentialize difference, this essay offers strategies for building transracial, feminist alliances through pedagogy. The authors argue that resistive classroom spaces should be created in which students and teachers challenge the discourses of domination that structure our understandings of identity and…

According to recent U.S. census reports, while the population of the United States increased by 10%, the population speaking languages other than English at home increased by 38% between 1980 and 1990. One in six of all youth in the United States, ages 14 to 19, either speaks a language other than English at home, was born in a foreign country, or…

The purpose of this study was to (a) develop an analytical framework that represents classroom talk and questioning in science, (b) find out how teachers use questioning to engage their students in thinking about conceptual content that enables the construction of knowledge, and (c) identify the various forms of feedback provided by teachers in…