The aim of this paper is to shed light on the nature of the topics of the reading passages in ELT coursebooks. To find out the content of the topics, a total number of 15 ELT coursebooks are studied by using both quantitative and qualitative measures. The discrepancies found are discussed and recommendations are made to underline the importance of…

Among Swales' (1996) list of occluded academic genres, retention-promotion-tenure (RPT) evaluations have been little studied. These evaluative reports, however, can inform EAP researchers, teachers, and students about ways that writers both follow and transgress discourse conventions to fulfill various purposes through an institutional text.…

Interviews with key scientists involved in research on severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), together with analysis of media reports and documentaries produced during and after the SARS epidemic, revealed many interesting aspects of nature of science (NOS) and authentic scientific inquiry. This novel insight into practice in the rapidly…

Over half of all racial/ethnic minority students matriculating at 4-year colleges fail to graduate within 6 years. One explanation for those low graduation rates is minority students' inability to find membership in the cultures and subcultures of their respective campuses. This study was focused on understanding the role of ethnic student…

Computer technology has the potential to provide rich resources for language teaching and learning. However, it continues to be underutilized, even though its availability, familiarity, and sophistication are steadily increasing. This case study explored the way in which three language instructors' beliefs about language teaching and learning…

Teachers are often unaware that bilingual students often switch between their languages when doing mathematics. Little research has been undertaken into this phenomenon. Results are reported here from a study of language switching by sixteen Year 4/5 Iranian bilingual students as they solved mathematical problems in an interview situation. Reasons…

Examined the relationships between student differences, prior experience with the subject material, past performances, teaching behaviors, and perceived learning and achievement. Found that achievement is affected by test anxiety and high school GPA, and that content-unfamiliar students, unlike content-familiar students, are more positively…

Examined children's comprehension and production of idioms through the roles of familiarity and of different kinds of contextual information on comprehension. A sample of 264 children showed that familiarity (i.e., frequency of exposure) plays a minor role and only for children who are not yet able to use contextual information. (18 references)…

Outlines a psychophysiological (involuntary responses to novel environmental stimuli) model of the role of orienting responses (ORs) in learning from televised lectures. Demonstrates that insertion of videographics in talking-head lectures produces ORs in television viewers. Finds that ORs enhance learning of familiar material but interfere with…

A study involving 11 male and 11 female inhabitants of Leiden (Netherlands) tested the hypothesis that a subject's judgments of the personality of unfamiliar target persons correspond better with the subject's Implicit Personality Theory than do judgments of the personality of familiar persons. The results confirm the hypothesis. (TJH)

Explored variation in destination search among group of retirement migrants (n=163) in terms of distance between origin and destination, previous place experience with destination, and presence of friends and family at destination. Found that first two factors significantly restricted search for potential destinations, but third did not. Suggests…

A survey of 143 clergy found 29% had no education about child abuse and neglect and that 22% believe that evidence, rather than the suspicion of abuse, is required before a report is made. The need for increased efforts to educate clergy about child abuse and neglect is discussed. (CR)

Examined children's tendency to make argument structure overgeneralization errors. Found that 3- to 8-year-olds were more likely to overgeneralize verbs less familiar to them, supporting the hypothesis that verb usage in particular construction types becomes entrenched over time. As children learn transitivity status of particular verbs, they…

We are able to recognise familiar faces easily across large variations in image quality, though our ability to match unfamiliar faces is strikingly poor. Here we ask how the representation of a face changes as we become familiar with it. We use a simple image-averaging technique to derive abstract representations of known faces. Using Principal…

Subjectivity and identity are newly configured within cyberspace and technologically mediated environments. The global musical subject is thus defined and framed within global empires and techno-culture in ways not unrelated to political interests. "Being musical" becomes a critical issue. The New Zealand music curriculum resonates with…