Using transcripts of children's talk, this paper examines the validity of claims that children provided with opportunities to work cooperatively and collaboratively in small groups will use talk to help them make meaning and enhance their cognitive understanding. The claims are substantiated. (Contains 32 references.) (Author/LB)

Argues for a conceptualization of the foreign language classroom that matches descriptions of real functional language for communication within a cultural group. Suggestions are provided for needed kinds of classroom-based research from a social interaction perspective to help us better understand what goes on in the language learning environment.…

Reflects on a teacher's first year back in the elementary classroom after having spent 12 years in university teaching. Notes that the teacher defines her role as a facilitator of student learning. Discusses struggling with reading aloud, partner reading, literature discussion groups, and talk about content area inquiries. Appends a transcript and…

Presents reflections on the articles in this special issue. Discusses how talk in the classroom has the potential to transform. Suggests that there is much more to learn about how to microanalyze teacher and student behavior, and that the greatest tool for this analysis is talk. (RS)

Discusses ways to encourage students to discuss and explain their problem-solving process, including journals, student-authored story problems, mathematician's chair, cooperative learning, family newsletter, and mathematics communication structures, which add variety to students' communication tasks. (MKR)

Examined two cross-aged tutoring corpora to show how conversational rules and politeness strategies can potentially enhance or inhibit effective tutoring. Suggests that politeness strategies are more prevalent in less constrained domains, even though their use may inhibit effective tutoring. Tutors should be cognizant of these costs and benefits,…

Addresses the renewed debate on cooperative learning in foreign language classrooms. First, the rationale for communicative language teaching in foreign language instruction is reported. Focus then shifts to research on potential drawbacks of communicative language teaching. Second, the role computers can play in cooperative learning is discussed,…

Examines the contribution that the teaching of controversial issues could make to student learning in the science classroom. Discusses the nature of controversial issues, some general guidelines for handling them, and various classroom techniques that might foster open-ended problem solving using small group discussion. (Author/MKR)

Considers the applicability of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis (which focus on language and the social organization of linguistic interchange) to the study of education, children's techniques of communication, socialization processes, and classroom communication. (DMM)

This article draws on sociolinguistics and educational anthropology to discuss (1) the concept of communicative competence in general and in the classroom setting in particular; and (2) findings from studies of home-school cultural discontinuities. The ability to empathize and understand is seen to help teachers and clinicians bridge differences…

The importance of incorporating discussion into college lecture classes is discussed, problems in starting and expanding exchange of ideas are examined, and techniques for "raising the intellectual temperature" of a class are offered. Anecdotal examples are drawn from observations of teachers in a variety of discipline contexts. (MSE)

Offers a narrative based on a real event, in the form of a "docustory," describing that moment when teaching worked--when, in an instructional setting, communication was "perfect,""best," or "excellent." Describes a role play activity that demonstrates to students how to draw upon each other's store of information, reasoning ability, and common…

Analyzes talk to discover what teacher verbal behaviors are associated with critical thinking and problem-solving behavior in children. Finds that teacher questioning and structuring in role enhanced the amount of children's evaluative and divergent thinking most. Offers an analytical comparison of two lessons to demonstrate teaching strategies.…

Compares pair work to other modes of classroom interaction in a group of 20 mixed-nationality English-as-a-foreign-language students. The pedagogical, social, cultural, and psychological implications of pair work are questioned, and the use of pair work as an unquestioned "blanket" methodology is challenged. (13 references) (JL)

Examines students' summaries of three lectures. Finds that the percentage, but not the number, of propositions correlated positively with the accuracy scores in the summaries. Suggests that analyses of errors, lexical substitutions, discrepancies in grades, and differences in students' scores for the different lectures revealed interesting results…