The 3 major papers of a symposium are included. Primary emphases are on: (1) problems of conceptualizing and measuring coping behavior in 8 cultures; (2) the effect of socio-cultural premises on coping behavior; and (3) the influence of social class on coping behavior. The first report discusses the steps involved in empirically determining…

The three studies involved attempt to assess the nature of cooperative and competitive behavior of young children in different socioeconomic classes. In the first study, 36 pairs of Head Start children, representing Mexican-American, Negro and Caucasian ethnic groups, were investigated concerning their cooperative-competitive behavior in relation…

Problems in the measurement of communicative competence of American Indian children are discussed in this position paper. Problems include the failure of traditional observations and measurements, and judgments by educators based on non-Indian experiences and expectations. Some trends in contemporary research concerned with these problems are…

General information on the studies currently underway by the Southwestern Cooperative Educational Laboratory (SECEL) is presented in this report. Module A is concerned with investigating the relationships between a variety of cultural-psychological factors and language development in grade 1. Testing and home interviews play a major part in this…

The norms of behavior and the expectations of a child's primary groupings were examined to determine if they were consistent with those of the larger, more impersonal society. If the norms and expectations were consistent, then primary socialization was likely to be important in shaping the child's sense of nationality. Thus, the school could be…

Instructional materials generated at the November 1971, American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Pre-Conference Workshop on Culture compiled in this publication include papers for teachers of French, German, Spanish, and English-as-a-second-language. This compilation is intended to help secondary school teachers broaden their approach…

This manual contains selected materials and ideas generated during the multicultural program implementation at Fremont Elementary School in 1974-75 which was funded under ESEA Title I. The program included: (1) the consecutive concentrated study of five individual cultures and (2) a comparative multicultural approach built around five basic…

Investigates the relationship between students' previous school knowledge about a particular natural phenomenon and the teaching of a science lesson about that phenomenon. A group of 198 secondary school students from Sierra Leone, West Africa, and 21 junior high students from the United States participated. (HM)

A study to determine the extent to which teacher education majors, from different cultural and geographical backgrounds, have an understanding of their own culture and that of a target culture. Indicates that both White and Black students' perceptions of their target cultures were at variance with that group's perception of itself. (JMD)

The study evaluated the effectiveness of three instructional methods in promoting speech sound discrimination and reading achievement over a 3-year period. (Author)

Methodological and theoretical options confronting second-language textbook authors are outlined. Analytic and synthetic methodological approaches, linguistic options, geographic variability, registers of language, spoken versus written language, cultural materials, and learners' level are discussed. (SW)

Activities that make middle school students more aware of and sensitive to the different cultural backgrounds of various races and disabled populations (particularly the deaf and hearing impaired) include student reflection on self-perception; an International Day presenting materials from various populations; and role playing and perspective…

Considers several factors that combine to hinder a learner in the task of second language acquisition, including barriers related to culture and society and the classroom environment. Appropriate teaching strategies for Spanish classes and research opportunities are also discussed. (CB)

Discusses the signals that are used to create, sustain, and end conversational involvement in two different languages, with examples provided of paralinguistic attention getters, linguistic conversation initiation signals, "in-tune" signals, and "face-saving" signals from a study of English and Greek. (CB)

Discusses the meaning of counseling from nonwestern perspectives and suggests some considerations for counselors. Discusses cultural differences related to stress, myth and superstition, social change, and social attitudes related to physical and mental health in six cultures. (JAC)