A study tested the validity of a speaking apprehension questionnaire developed by Marshall that monitors the performance of secondary school teaching in oracy in the Netherlands. This questionnaire, intended for 11- to 16-year-old students, was administered to 86 secondary school students. The improved instrument, the Speaking Apprehension Measure…

This study was conducted to address the question of how teacher written comments affected students from elementary school to college and to see if there were any differences within and between these groups. Twelve students, five male and seven female, from elementary, high school, and college (including some education majors), were the subjects of…

This newsletter discusses a Swedish research project investigating the command immigrant school children living in Sweden have of their native language and of Swedish as a second language. The project's objective is to describe the children's language proficiency and factors promoting or inhibiting it in the classroom. The study is undertaken in…

A study examined student responses to teacher-initiated questions in classrooms of English as a Second Language (ESL) and English as a Foreign Language (EFL). The study focused specifically on the similarities and differences in the questions asked by native-speaking (NS) teachers of ESL and by non-native-speaking (NNS) teachers of EFL, and to…

Aspects of dominant and submissive sex role behaviors in preschool children and their teachers during conversation at the snack table were examined in three experiments. Experiment 1 was intended to determine whether the number of times children interrupted their teacher and the teacher interrupted children differed according to the sex of the…

Teachers need to become students again and pay attention to how they learn best in order that they may then use like means in teaching their students. Teacher students often connect by telling anecdotes and other narratives that have meaning in their personal experiences. They share these stories and build on them, finding fresh ways of looking at…

A study examined the power of communication apprehension, person perception, network connectedness, and course satisfaction to predict learning outcomes in a college communication course. Subjects, 81 students from a multisection course, completed a variety of self-report instruments measuring their communication apprehension levels; perceptions…

Many college freshmen find it difficult to explore their ideas about writing in the presence of teachers who have already decided the agenda for their student-teacher conferences. Teachers often feel compelled to lead the conversation and fall into an authoritarian model of interaction, "depositing" knowledge into students and ignoring…

The situation in Hong Kong secondary schools, where teachers of remedial English use some Chinese (Cantonese) in their classes, prompted a study of the question of language use in such classes. A literature review found very few instances of a researcher trying to implement theories or suggestions in a classroom. A needs assessment questionnaire…

Aware of some educators' concerns that computers isolate children and are too abstract for chilren under the age of eight, two studies investigated young children's use of LOGO and their interactions with the computer. Data were collected on kindergartners working in a public school computer lab and on preschoolers using computers in a…

Since the essence of teaching is communication, one of the core areas of the liberal arts component of teacher education should be speech communication. Teachers need oral communication skills to effectively facilitate learning, manage the classroom, and make professional decisions. A course designed to be both theoretical and practical--providing…

Expectation research has frequently assumed that teachers respond differently to students, based upon their perceptions of student ability. Because general student behavior is correlated with ability, however, it is possible that teachers are responding to differences in behavior rather than ability. A study examined the relationship between…

To provide a clear idea of the specific teacher behaviors involved in questioning and how these behaviors relate to each other, this paper develops a conceptualization of the interactional components of questioning and reviews research evaluating the benefits of alternative questioning techniques. The paper first describes different methods of…

Conducted as part of a research program examining teachers' use of compliance gaining strategies to control specific student misbehaviors, a study investigated the strategies used by experienced teachers in dealing with student misbehaviors. The purpose was to compare the findings with those of an earlier study with prospective teachers. Subjects…

Certain scholars in anthropology and education have recently suggested as an approach to combat school failure for minority students the concept of cultural congruence--the idea that learning is best accomplished in classrooms compatible with the cultural context of the communities they are supposed to serve. Although this concept is yet to be…