This paper presents one example of moments of tension from a yearlong ethnographic study conducted in a college intermediate Japanese-as-a-foreign-language classroom (Kumagai, 2004). I define moments of tension as those moments when conflicts arise between an instructor's teaching agenda and students' learning agenda. Conducting critical discourse…

This instrumental case study examines how adolescent high-intermediate Japanese language learners enrolled in a one-month credited abroad program used video as a mediational tool for (1) learning foreign language, content, and technology skills, (2) cultivating critical multiliteracies and transformative learning regarding geopolitics and the…

A major preoccupation in assessment is connecting examinees' performance in assessment and nonassessment contexts. This preoccupation has traditionally been framed in terms of generalizability. This article reconceptualizes this problem from a qualitatively different perspective on human abilities and their development, namely, the Sociocultural…

Teachers in the municipally run infant-toddler and preprimary schools of Reggio Emilia have repeatedly demonstrated and described their schools as relational spaces where documentation makes visible children's learning and informs flexible planning, or progettazione. The purpose of this article is to reveal how teachers' and children's patterns of…

This section presents brief synopses of empirical research and theoretical discussions in peer-reviewed journals. The aim is to disseminate findings and perspectives in fields related to TESOL and to provide access to the diverse conversations among scholars in the field.

This article reports on an interpretative inquiry into 14 tertiary vocational students' educational experiences on the Chinese mainland with a focus on their strategy use in learning English. Using sociocultural theory, the inquiry reveals the profound impact that the learning context had on the research participants' strategy use. The data reveal…

Background: The call to recruit and retain teachers of color in urban high-minority schools is based on an assumption of a cultural match with students. Yet new teachers of color may find themselves challenged by students with whom they are supposedly culturally matched. Although past research has examined recruitment, preservice, and veteran…

Purpose: This study explored aspects of stigmatization for older adults who live in residential care or assisted living (RC-AL) communities and what these settings have done to address stigma. Design and Methods: We used ethnography and other qualitative data-gathering and analytic techniques to gather data from 309 participants (residents, family…

The complexity of the global society and economy, and the resulting fracturing of social classes across the Midwest, the nation, and the world demand a significant expansion of the importance of human relations training courses for counselor education and for general teacher education. At the University of South Dakota at Vermillion the School of…

Market data in 34 different markets around the country provided the background for a comparison of newspaper subscribers and nonsubscribers. Essentially the market reports provided information on what kinds of people subscribe to a newspaper and why. Among the findings are the following: (1) subscribers tend to be older, to have higher incomes,…

The purpose is to show that the problems of academic freedom, or freedom generally, are not a matter of only one country, but are essentially the same in different countries where establishments have different points of view. (Author/ND)

Every culture has unique attitudes and values toward health and sickness. This article explores Mexican medical culture on native, folk and scientific levels, and its effect on national health and medical practice. (In Spanish). (CK)

An American's description of problems encountered and cultural differences examined while employed as a lecturer at the University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria. (HMV)

While most previous research has implied or assumed that the conversational structure giving each speaker a turn to speak is universally normative, findings of one study suggest that in interactions with at least four participants, alternatives to this rule are possible. A phenomenon called "conversational fission" occurs when a four-…

Examines the relationship between speaker and hearer in linguistic communication. (LG)