Compares family life, child rearing, and education in the Soviet Union and the United States in the 1980s. (PCB)

Reports on two research studies investigating whether teachers can enhance third-grade students' written composition skills by reading aloud to them. Indicates that written composition skills improved, especially written syntactic maturity. (SR)

Describes the experiences of an American professor who participated in an exchange program with a Chinese university to work in the audiovisual center, teach English, and study the use of instructional technology in Chinese universities. Cultural differences are discussed, and the need for cultural sensitivity is emphasized. (LRW)

The article presents general information on the history, cultures, and languages of the major Asian/Pacific immigrant and refugee groups. Knowledge required to become a cross-cultural communicator is outlined, including professional knowledge, skills, and attitudes; knowledge of cultures, languages, and discourse styles; and knowledge of family…

A study comparing the educational performance of limited-English-proficient (LEP) and fluent-English-proficient (FEP) Southeast Asian students as a whole with that of other LEP and FEP ethnic groups finds that the five main Indochinese ethnic groups exhibit significant socioeconomic and ethnocultural diversity, impacting on their academic…

Suggests that the difficulties encountered by Westerners in learning Chinese are the result of native language interference, and interference caused by different customs and ways of thinking. A contrastive analysis of the different cultural aspects of Chinese and Western ways of thinking is presented. (VWL)

Conducted two studies with Nigerian and Canadian undergraduates participating as observers of videotaped Hausa and Ibo actors, cast in their ethnic schema-consistent and schema-inconsistent roles. Nigerian group modestly supported hypothesis that the phenomenon of ingroup favoritism/outgroup discrimination should be limited to schema-consistent…

Maintains that diversity enriches child care programs. (BB)

Summarizes a study using the Children's Scale of Social Attitudes to compare the factor structure of conservatism in seventh-grade Israeli children of Western ethnic origin with Israeli children from Eastern cultural backgrounds. Results indicated a marked similarity in factor structures reconfirming the universal nature of general conservatism…

Explores aboriginal discourse styles in a public context, their presentation of knowledge and experience through stories, and the mismatch between discourse styles of aboriginal people and what is expected in classrooms. (MM)

Describes a series of activities designed to encourage students to tap their experiences with other cultures as a resource for their writing. Provides a sample "response sheet" to use with a writer's workshop exercise. (MM)

Recommends that students conduct ethnographic studies of language in their own communities. Emphasizes that the focus ought to be conventions of speaking and writing, as well as conventions that govern the conduct, the "texts," of a culture. (RAE)

Discusses three cultural categories studied by Margaret Mead: pre-figurative (slow-changing); cofigurative (moderately changing); and post-figurative (rapidly changing). Schools must help our young persons recognize different ways of life throughout the world. We can no longer assume that our own practices, beliefs, and standards are superior to…

Outlines 12 differences between American and Chinese culture. The different connotations of five lexical items are discussed. Social behavior discussed includes 1) response to a compliment or offer; 2) greetings; and 3) sending gifts. The Chinese and American forms of expressing time and location, and of confirming the premise of a question are…

Describes difficulties experienced by librarians in trying to communicate with students for whom English is not the native language. The discussion covers strategies to improve communication, including the use of analogy, universal humor, hands on experience, and integrated programs involving English as a second language and library personnel. (10…