Even college students often hesitate to appear too intellectual or participate in class very much. Some students are non-identifying students, with antipathy for teachers, and some are identifying students with a good self-concept as learners and neutral or empathetic feelings for teachers. The teacher's dilemma is to devise techniques to produce…

In this study comparing peer group conversation with conversation in other settings, five college freshmen were observed and taped in the 12th week of the semester during a group discussion about their own writing. Four types of conversational moves were tallied: structural comments, solicitations, responses, and reactions. Comparison of these…

The central purpose of storytelling in the classroom is for enjoyment, both on the part of the storyteller and the audience. On the other hand, especially when time is allotted for storytelling during reading instruction periods, teachers can integrate the art of storytelling with practical competence building activities. For example, the tale of…

Listening is one of the most crucial skills in the classroom for student as well as teacher, yet both students and teachers are left to their own devices in learning this skill. Since the vast majority of learning in school requires extensive and intensive listening abilities, students must be assured the skill with which to listen and learn.…

A study of spontaneous language use by elementary school children and teachers in a wide range of classroom activities used a combination of observation, audiotaping, videotaping, and interviews to examine more closely the role of dialect diversity in elementary education. The study provides a more accurate and complete record of classroom life…

A study examined the role of talk in the writing act. The study utilized participant observational techniques in an attempt to discover how talk was implicated in all stages of writing. Subjects were three fourth, fifth, and/or sixth grade informants, with one student emerging as the key informant in the study. Results indicated that talk appeared…

Part of a larger project to design a production curriculum and measure the impact of this production activity on children's writing, visual thinking, and problem solving skills, a project developed an effective but inexpensive video for use in teaching animation processes to students at the elementary school level. The project used "cutout" or…

This book is an update and explanation of "The Seven Laws of Teaching," written by John Milton Gregory in 1884. The teaching laws are clear and simple statements of the important factors governing the art of teaching. They are: (1) The teacher must know the lesson, truth, or art to be taught; (2) The learner must show interest in the lesson; (3)…

Research on communicative processes in classroom second language use is reviewed, and exercises for developing interactive skills and culturally appropriate conversational behavior are suggested. The inability of students to actively participate in the second language classroom is related less to deficient knowledge of form than to inability to…

Reports an investigation designed to determine if using programmed textbook units in rather typical courses improved student test performance and enriched student interaction in class discussion. (PEB)

This study presents a dramatistic analysis of the language used by four teachers, all of whom were considered excellent by their department directors, by their students, and by the parents of their students. Regular freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior literature classes were videotaped. Dialogue was then transcribed, and nonverbal activity,…

A study was conducted to determine the degree to which teachers and students share perceptions of the use of power in the classroom. The study defined five bases of power: coercive (implied or explicit punishment), reward, legitimate (assigned), referent (identification with the person in power), and expert (perceived competence). A total of 156…

The fifth in a series of annual volumes published by the International Communication Association, this yearbook provides reviews, overviews, and syntheses of developments in the evolution of the science of communication. The 40 articles in the volume are categorized as follows: (1) communication reviews and commentaries, including issues in…

This compilation includes the following essays: (1) "Conversational Inference and Classroom Learning" (John J. Gumperz); (2) "Persuasive Talk--The Social Organization of Children's Talk" (Jenny Cook-Gumperz); (3) "Ethnography--The Holistic Approach to Understanding Schooling" (Frank W. Lutz); (4) "Triangulated Inquiry--A Methodology for the…