This article examines the effect of a teacher's cultural representations and tacit communicative style on interactive practices in the classroom. We compare two second-grade classrooms constituted predominantly by Latino immigrant children and teachers with differing cultural representations of education. Through video and acoustic analyses of…

Suggests a variety of class activities analyzing the language used in French-language advertisements. (MSE)

The importance of the distinction between form and function in language use, the appropriateness of language to varying situations, the elements of discourse structure, and the paralinguistic features of communication are discussed. Classroom activities employing these principles to develop communicative competence are included. (PMJ)

Four ideas for language classroom activities are presented, including an exercise in oral discourse analysis, a newspaper-reading activity using the holistic approach, the use of slight phonological changes to turn a title into a joke or play on words, and an exercise looking at varieties of language style. (MSE)

Defines basic characteristics and types of social conversation within small groups and gives guidelines for classroom practice stressing preliminary discussion of situations, topics, appropriate vocabulary, and language style. Discusses teacher's role during students' conversation practice and describes materials suitable for initial practice.…

Four ideas for classroom French instruction are described, including a lesson in the use of indicative and subjunctive moods; creative writing exercises; a comparison of the text styles of letters with different purposes; and a beginning French geography lesson. (MSE)

This study analyzed the discourse of electronic mail (e-mail) exchanges between students of English as a second language (ESL) and other ESL learners from other cultures and at varying proficiency levels (keypals), focusing on what these exchanges may reveal about learners' progress through the "Zone of Proximal Development," a…

A major goal of ESL education is to teach students how to speak English well enough to converse spontaneously and naturally with native speakers. Discourse analysis provides an understanding of those skills second language learners need to acquire to converse with native speakers and an understanding of how these skills may most beneficially be…