This paper reports on a project involving student recall of the dialogue in a movie and retention of the "anchor," which in this case refers to a videotape recording of "To Kill a Mockingbird." The project looked at how students retained knowledge over a few days and what kind of activities resulted from expertise with an…

Observations of 90 lessons reveal the limitations of the whole-class discussion, the dominant teaching method in elementary and secondary schools. In addition to producing a low percentage of student involvement, rarely more than 50%, teachers' questions and answer techniques do not usually stimulate critical thinking. Besides most often asking…

When writing is taught through conferences between a student and teacher, the authority of the teacher profoundly influences what students think and say about writing. Also, as students learn to deal with their teacher's authority, they develop strategies for talking about writing tasks in voices that are authentically their own. An examination of…

Focusing on how children learn to read in a language they have previously only spoken, this book illustrates the skill theory of reading development, which encompasses both new perceptual processes and modified but familiar integrative cognitive processes of language comprehension. The chapters discuss the following aspects of learning to read:…

Noting that while student teachers may be well versed in theories of instruction, they frequently lack a particular type of communication competence for the classroom, this paper describes a project for training teachers by using videotapes of teacher/student interaction during reading lessons. The first part of the paper describes the three…

Classroom based research investigating the actual context of reading requires examination of the texts chosen, the purposes for which they are to be read, the strategies to be used in actually reading them, and, finally, the outcomes expected from reading them. Among the studies that have pioneered research of this kind are (1) those directed by…

A number of common procedures underlie speaking, writing, listening, and reading; some students acquire these through exposure while others do not. A program for the teaching of procedures will differ from many conventional programs in that it will first identify and recognize these procedures. Abstract and complex prose and issues of…

Investigators wrote proposals for research on the nature and learning of communicative processes in the elementary classroom. Three questions were addressed: (1) What is the nature of communication in the classroom? (2) How do students acquire the rules of classroom discourse? (3) What is the effect of inadequate learning of classroom discourse…

The Intellectual Framework Analysis (IFA) is a structured approach to reading expository prose. Suitable for use with high school students and college freshmen, the IFA consists of a number of questions concerning the author's subject matter, classifications, value judgments, motivation, and form/content. The IFA incorporates a number of study…

This paper attempts to enact Rivers' (1971 and 1972) urgings to base ESL listening instruction on both psychological and linguistic findings and contends that advanced ESL students' listening needs call for improvement in processing spoken English discourse. Psychological data on memory span is cited to demonstrate that advanced ESL students…

In one essay of this collection of four, Kenneth L. Pike explores the value of exercises which are based on axioms about language structure and which are designed specifically to develop writing competence; he lists eight tagmemic principles accompanied by suggested exercises. In another essay, Pike differentiates the roles of linguist and…

Teaching organizational strategies to language-disordered children can improve comprehension and formulation of written language. The semantic organizer approach involves activating and organizing prior knowledge, understanding text structure, and developing organizational strategies with both a verbal component and a graphic-structure component.…

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.…

Describes an inservice training project designed to raise trainees' awareness, through the analysis of transcriptions of teaching sequences, of the degree of communicativeness in their classroom interactions. Findings indicate an increasing awareness by trainees of their noncommunicative ritualized teaching behaviors, an awareness leading to…

Examines the discursive structures and linguistic resources of the interactional environments influencing the development of individual communicative competence, with specific reference to providing speaking opportunities to students studying Spanish as a second language. Findings reveal that the ways in which topics are developed differ from how…