Describes the metaphors three student teachers use to describe their own teaching styles. Combines these metaphors into a "student-teacher" metaphor which preserves the complexity of teaching and suggests that teachers are guides and referees as well as learners and friends. (RS)

Compares teachers' estimates of spontaneous language with direct observations of performance of developmentally delayed preschool children in classroom situations. Teachers tended to be more accurate in their estimation of children with higher spontaneous language frequencies and to underestimate the frequency of spontaneous language in other…

To improve oral communication skills of their students, teachers should provide opportunities for students to talk in class. Teachers are advised to: begin early, be sensitive to the individuality of students' speech patterns, and stress that there are different kinds of speech patterns for different situations. (JDD)

The structural and practical sources of inefficiency in the second language learning and teaching environment are analyzed, and sources of efficiency are proposed. It is concluded that interaction or communication is a primary condition for efficiency, especially if efficiency is an objective. (MSE)

Second-language teaching styles are defined as specific configurations of student and teacher behaviors during the teaching episode that are further described by certain dimensions of teaching. Teaching styles are seen as useful conceptual tools, and their nature and complexity are considered at three levels: foundation, structure, and…

Discusses the difficulties and usefulness of perceiving the interface between communication and instruction. Details the interface, and outlines three overall advantages for communication department chairs who view instructional situations as communication situations: improved instructional environment; more effective campus rhetoric; and enhanced…

Examined were the communicative patterns of 9 youngsters, aged 6-20, with moderate or severe mental retardation and severe spoken language impairments who are not independent speakers. Findings are discussed with respect to the modes and functions of the youngsters' communications with conversational partners at home and school. (Author/JDD)

Described is the adaptation to the educational setting of a family therapy-based systems approach to communications, intended to improve classroom atmospheres of both beginning and experienced teachers who were experiencing difficulty in creating and maintaining a good working atmosphere. (CB)

Presents an activity to develop an understanding of the importance of definitions in mathematics in which the teacher uses counterexamples to produce modifications in proposed definitions for the concept of quadrilateral. Suggested follow-up activities include telephone description, dictionary mathematics, and definition displays. (MDH)

Addresses the issue of how the centrality of virtue might be accommodated in dialog within common schools under the conditions of pluralism. Two contrasting approaches to moral dialog under these conditions are examined and rejected followed by a third approach, derived from John Rawl's conceptions of reasonableness and democratic tolerance, that…

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)