Examined two cross-aged tutoring corpora to show how conversational rules and politeness strategies can potentially enhance or inhibit effective tutoring. Suggests that politeness strategies are more prevalent in less constrained domains, even though their use may inhibit effective tutoring. Tutors should be cognizant of these costs and benefits,…

Maintains that preschool teachers can encourage meaningful dialogue and enhance learning among young children by asking appropriate questions, using fewer "known-answer" and testing questions, being sensitive to cultural differences, and creating an environment in which the educational goal is conversational equality between teachers and…

Claims that although a child-oriented classroom is organized by the teacher, the curriculum is enacted by everyone, and that dialogues in which teachers and children develop together provides the core of this enactment. (MM)