In response to Long and Crookes, Willis argues authors misunderstand the lexical syllabus (LS) as realized in Willis and Willis (1988). Long/Crookes reply that their article stressed need for focus on form in task-based language teaching and that there is a vast difference between focus on form and focus on forms, which Willis's adherence to an LS…

An author, David Nunan, responds to a previous article that criticizes his advocacy of task-based syllabuses. Another author, Michael Long, points out inaccuracies in the criticism, and the author of the criticism, Ron Sheen, defends his earlier claim. (45 references) (JL)

Suggests that, despite the expanding variety of the university population, despite diversity and challenges to the literary canon, writing assignments continue to be uninspired and outdated. Describes an "Alternative Responses to Literature" course whose aim was to open up the communal readings, the forms of response to them, and the…

Outlines in detail a course that teaches the underlying meanings of the British TV series "The Prisoner" and the U.S. miniseries "Amerika." Aims to familiarize students with different formal methodologies and complements a graduate-level class in cinema theory and the history of cinema. Contains a list of readings for each…

Describes "Promotional Publications," a required course for public relations majors, which teaches the basics of desktop publishing. Outlines how the course covers the preparation of publications used as communication tools in public relations, advertising, and organizations, with an emphasis upon design, layout, and technology. (MM)

Describes a 14-hour course designed to teach grammar to adults in the business world. Describes the kinds of students in the course and why they have not learned grammar previously. Presents 10 suggestions on how a similar course might be taught. (RS)

Maintains that perspectives of cultural diversity and gender are appropriate for courses in mass communication and society. Describes the academic techniques (a focus on culture and media studies) and the instructional techniques of such a course developed at Stanford University. Notes the need to deal with zero-sum perceptions of such endeavors…

Advocates the interpretive communities approach to teaching political communication. Discusses philosophical issues in the teaching of political communication courses, and pedagogical techniques (including concepts versus cases, clustering examples, C-SPAN video examples, and simulations and games). (SR)

Offers recommendations for development of an undergraduate desktop publishing course. Discusses scholastic level and prerequisites, purpose and objectives, instructional resources and methodology, assignments and evaluation, and a general course outline. (SR)

Offers ways to amplify current instruction on the all-important job interview. Discusses resumes, job application letters, oral reports, preparing for the interview, mock interview checklist, doing the interview, sample interview questions, and leaving the interview. (SR)

An interdisciplinary business administration course taught at Kent State University (Ohio) uses literature to teach bureaucratic structure, based on the idea that, for business students, studying literature is an opportunity to develop alternative methods of perceiving and managing human resources. The curriculum is described and the reading list…

The article describes a 6-week course (10 classroom hours) to teach community emergency personnel basic sign language skills. An outline of each session's activities is provided. (DB)

Discusses the organization of two basic writing courses around reading and summarizing, following the typical description of summary found in composition texts. Notes that, based on their research, the authors no longer believe that summaries can be completely objective: instead, they believe that summary is an interpretive act and that students…

The applied foreign language component (AFLC) model of foreign-language instruction used at Saint Olaf College (MN) is reviewed, and statistics are provided based on the first 2 years of the programs existence. (four references) (VWL)

Describes a technical publications course in which students learning how to use desktop programs also gain an understanding of the principles of design and layout by using mechanical paste-up techniques. (NH)