Examined the ability of 72 Polish university students of English to respond appropriately to the formulaic greeting "How are you (doing) (today)?" Found that nearly half of these advanced language students failed to perceive the formulaic nature of the question. (MDM)

Notes that achieving school readiness for all children by the year 2000 will require a reconceptualization of the concept of readiness. Reviews some of the relevant history of readiness as an area of inquiry, and details the issues surrounding readiness, including school readiness versus learning readiness, and chronological age of entry versus…

Stresses the importance of understanding the world views of diverse cultural groups and acknowledging differences in communication styles and patterns when planning transitional services for disabled minority students in rural areas. Includes suggestions for effective transition planning for culturally diverse students and their families. (LP)

Discussion of locus of control (LOC), gender, and mathematics and technical subjects focuses on a study of preschool girls and boys that investigated the effects of a LOGO program on efficacy and LOC. Highlights include treatment of experimental and control groups; gender differences; parent questionnaires; and pretests and posttests. (69…

Examined the relationships between violence within the family and child behavior problems in a sample of 185 children living at battered women shelters. Found that children were affected by witnessing violence between their parents and by harsh punitive discipline, particularly administered by mothers. Family violence variables were better…

Used a standard picture-ranking task to assess preschooler's attitudes about orthopedically handicapped individuals. Found that children as young as preschool age can hold a functionally related preference for a normal over a physically handicapped person. Children who held this preference interacted differently in social situations than children…

The egalitarian dogma, the belief that blacks and whites are genetically equal in cognitive ability, has been perpetuated through intimidation and pious thinking. Data on racial differences and the corruption of scholarship that causes them to be ignored are discussed. (SLD)

The choices that Japanese women make about higher education are, in part, a response to realistic expectations about the functions or rewards of education in their lives and the availability of job opportunities for educated women. Discusses traditional and changing Japanese attitudes toward sex roles, working women, and the types of employment…

Reports on the research and development of a history textbook on Puerto Rico. Discusses the issues of historical synthesis and the special problems associated with writing a book about an island that is neither an independent nation nor a colonial possession. (CFR)

The article examines why women and young girls are predisposed to tobacco use, what gender-based variables are at play, what external variables facilitate the initiation of tobacco use, why women continue to smoke, and what intervention strategies can address females and at-risk subgroups. (SM)

Prelinguistically deafened children (n=28) with cochlear implants performed imitative and structured spontaneous sampling speech tasks. Results found children who had used implants for at least two years acquired some intelligible speech; children who received implants before five years of age showed greater benefit than later recipients; and…

Offers a sociolinguistic appraisal of the representation of languages (as "languages" or "dialects") in the Indian census, with special reference to the status of Maithili. Classifying Maithili as an independent language threatens the homogeneity of the "Hindi belt"; conversely, treating it as a Hindi dialect might…

This article describes five major stylistic qualities that college teachers possess and offers suggestions for when and how to employ them. It also discusses the development of the Teaching Style Inventory, which was administered to 381 faculty members to gauge the distribution of teaching styles across gender, academic rank, course level, and…

A study of 264 full-time African American social work faculty explored effects of gender, degree level, rank, tenure, and program type on manuscript submission to journals. Most manuscripts were submitted by a minority of subjects, about half were accepted, and high submission rates correlated with being male and having a doctorate. (Author/MSE)

Provides a 32-item annotated bibliography of recommended instructional materials on cultural pluralism, equal protection, and constitutional rights. Includes materials for both students and teachers. Categorizes the 32 items as books, periodicals, computer software, videotapes, and other materials. (CFR)