Discusses materials developed in a class of 11-year-old children beginning English at a German high school. The materials are not based on artificial situations, but on real situations in the students' own classroom. (CFM)

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)

Discusses the types of materials that should be used in the foreign language classroom to teach students how to communicate in real-life situations. These materials are called "communication tasks." (CFM)

This study compared the effectiveness of two interventions that differed in the nature of dialogic interactions among teachers and students in reading groups. Teacher-interns (n=35) instructed 109 children with mild disabilities in special education resource rooms. Analyses indicated that the intervention featuring dialog, social interactions, and…

This article describes a discourse-based language intervention strategy in which children with pervasive developmental disorders are taught to make use of prior linguistic context to participate verbally in structured, interactive dialogues. The paper also describes the use of behavioral methodologies, especially milieu therapies, and the need for…

A dialogical model is proposed for connecting theory to practice in teacher education by conceiving of cases from case-based pedagogy as problems that initiate shared inquiry. Cases with genuine cognitive and axiological content can initiate self-directed, student-centered inquiry while building democratic dialogical communities. (SLD)

I created a newsgroup with Yahoo Groups and invited all male and female colleagues at the College of Languages and Translation to register. The aims of the newsgroup were to share college news, discuss academic issues and student and faculty problems, learn about each other's publications and academic activities. Although messages were sent to the…

This paper discusses the use of video cameras as a teaching tool in English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) classrooms, with emphasis on their use in EFL college courses in East Asian countries. The paper reviews the availability and use of video cameras, especially for instructors who may be unfamiliar with their operation. Language teachers can use…

Dialogue journals, notebooks in which students communicate individually with the teacher on whatever topics they choose, can be both an important way to develop second language ability and a method of integrating language and classroom management. This is particularly true in a multicultural classroom, since the dialogue journals can help the…

A study of the effects of the complexity of scenarios used in the Strategic Interaction Method of second language instruction had four scenarios of varying complexity performed by four university classes of students of English as a second language at varying levels. Indicators of complexity included the degree of verbalness, contextual constraint,…

In an effort to implement a program of reciprocal teaching dialogues, 6 first-grade teachers orally presented third-grade biology lessons to a group of 6 students, most of whom were identified as at risk for academic difficulty. Teachers aimed to teach students ways to approach learning from text and increase students' understanding of biological…

This article surveys a sample of first-year college Spanish textbooks published in the 1970s. The textbooks are analyzed on the basis of the following components: grammar, exercises, pronunciation, language skills, vocabulary, review sections, culture, dialogues, special features, workbooks, and contents of the instructor's manual. (CFM)

Discusses the importance of dialogue in learning, notes that it is lacking in many educational situations, and recommends the use of written dialogue journals as a means of communication between teachers and individual students. Points out the advantages of dialogue journals for improving writing for different social purposes. (SKC)

Describes a one-semester conversational course taught at Harvard University designed to teach basic oral communication skills in French with the main emphasis on teaching students to pause while speaking. (AM)

A constructivist approach to parent education that enabled parents to be active participants in reflection and dialogue processes was tested in a study. Instruction was designed to stimulate and support self-reflection and dialogue processes enabling parents to be active participants in constructing new meanings to their child rearing practices.…