Describes a study which addressed three questions: (1) Do Hawaiian-English children have the same general ability to understand connected discourse as their standard English-speaking peers? (2) Do they have more difficulty understanding standard English than their own dialect? and (3) Can they more easily understand standard English by making…

Analyzes communication barriers in teaching methods such as lectures, prepared and live case studies, experiential exercises, and computer simulations. Concludes that the most serious barriers were the instructors' and students' tendency not to listen, instructors' hostile attitudes, personality conflicts between instructors and students, and an…

Provides ideas for sharpening the focus of teacher-moderated discussions in history classes. Asserts that students must be presented with a question that elicits solution of a problem ("Why did Lincoln wait so long before issuing the Emancipation Proclamation?") rather than factual recall ("What is the Emancipation Proclamation?"). Includes model…

Explains how to interpret signals students send and how to deal with discipline problems by counteracting the harmful and predictable games that students play. (EL)

Introduces the notion of a "discourse world," that is, a set of elements against the background of which a unit of talk makes sense, and claims that several discourse worlds coexist in classroom discourse. The notion is interpreted in terms of frame theory and applied to classroom language learning. (SED)

Classroom interactions are important in teaching social work practice. Teaching techniques include working within a time- and goal-specific framework, consciously using oneself as a role model, and teaching specific practice skills by focusing on group practices to teach social work principles, values, and skills. (MSE)

The issue of teachers' interpretion of children's language and ideas is explored through observations of sharing time in a second-grade classroom. Problems associated with teacher evaluation of student competence in classrooms where children come from various ethnic and linguistic backgrounds are discussed. (DF)

Criticizes traditional discourse analysis and suggests some new ideas for describing and analyzing classroom interaction. Emphasizes the importance of the study of turn-taking and looks at the roles of teachers and learners. The uses of "repair" and correction are compared in a study of classroom communication and communication outside…

Two educational publishers in the field of language instruction present their views on various issues concerning computer-assisted instruction (CAI). These include: the advantages of CAI, the concerns teachers generally have, arguments for publishers, and the editorial standards that publishers hope to see realized. (SL)

Presents an outline of the textual and the ethnomethodological approaches to the analysis of discourse processing in second language learning and discusses their major strengths and weaknesses. Looks at the implications for English as a second language research, theory, and practice. Suggests that classroom discourse analysis should be encouraged.…

Focusing on "interpreting speaker/hearers" as a method to show how classroom discourse facilitates or fetters education, the author suggests that the key issue is the type of elicitation a question might apprear to be to students. (MD)

Evaluated impact of using English, the "Mother Tongue" (Yoruba), or a structural bilingual mix of English and Yoruba in classroom communication. Found little difference in frequency of teaching behavior patterns, although in some instances teachers speaking Yoruba were more active. (CJM)

Natural discourse among students in nonacademic situations is compared with instructional discourse occurring between the teacher and individual students or between the teacher and the entire class. The role of each in the foreign language classroom is discussed. (MSE)

This book gathers 25 essays and 80 shorter excerpts from the past 25 years of the K-8 journal "Language Arts." Essays in the book begin with (1) "Introduction" (Sharon Murphy and Curt Dudley-Marling). Under Section I--Opening Contexts for Thinking about Teaching the Language Arts--are the following essays: (2) "How…

This article presents findings from a qualitative arts-based research project that took place in a fourth-grade classroom over the period of one school year. The article examines the impact of storytelling on children's self concept. In addition, it discusses how storytelling helped children process their social experiences in school. The study…