Blogs and podcasts open new ways for global communication and development of intercultural awareness. This article reports a Spanish-American telecollaborative project through which students created blogs and podcasts for intercultural exchanges in light of the sociocultural perspectives. The article outlines the methodology for the project…

This paper presents the results of a study investigating the impact of interactional feedback on interlanguage variation in terms of accuracy, complexity, and fluency of learners' discourse in performing tasks with familiar vs. unfamiliar topics. The participant of the study who were randomly assigned into an experimental and a control group were…

Study abroad (SA) is one of the flagship offerings among United States higher education institutions. Approximately 220,000 students studied abroad in the 2005/2006 academic year, 52.8% of whom studied on programs that lasted eight weeks or less. The effect of these short-term programs on second language development has been little investigated,…

This study investigated the phonological awareness skills of a group of deaf adolescents and how these skills correlated with decoding skills (single word and non-word reading) and receptive vocabulary. Twenty, congenitally profoundly deaf adolescents with at least average nonverbal cognitive skills were tested on a range of phonological awareness…

Second language acquisition (SLA) researchers strive to understand the language and exchanges that learners generate in synchronous computer-mediated communication (SCMC). Doughty and Long (2003) advocate replacing open-ended SCMC with task-based language teaching (TBLT) design principles. Since most task-based SCMC (TB-SCMC) research addresses an…

This study examines whether or not habituation contributes to the regulation of the inhibition of predatory behavior observed during the "prawn-in-the-tube" training procedure. When presented with prawns that are visible behind glass but untouchable, cuttlefish promptly learn to inhibit their capture attempts. The first three experiments…

Direct instruction (DI), a predetermined and systematic approach to the teaching/learning process, is advocated for teaching precise responses in the most efficient way to preschool handicapped students. Planning for DI includes specifying task sequences leading to a terminal behavior. Specific steps are followed in the presentation and curriculum…

A discussion of the use of task analysis as a method of determining the need for training. (Author/HB)

This two-part paper offers some guidelines for training in observation skills. Part one describes nine guidelines for observers. Part two delineates 10 tasks in observing and identifies ways of accomplishing them. Tasks include identifying goals of the learning task; gaining evidence of teacher's planning; determining student motivation level;…

This paper presents an analysis of the task characteristics of various academic areas. Multidimensional scaling was performed at the University of Illinois on 168 scholars' judgments about the similarities among 36 academic task areas, and 54 scholars at a small western college judged similarities among 30 areas. The method used in the study was…

The authors review the rationale for task analysis, discuss five guidelines for using task analysis with handicapped children, and describe six methods (such as brainstorming watching someone perform the task, and working backward from the terminal objective) for its application. (CL)

Depending on the type of behavior one wants to measure, competency tests are either written or performance oriented. Information and cognitive processing are best measured by written demonstrations of the knowledge. Skills ability is best measured by performance testing. (Author/JOW)

The author reviews the research on quality of tasks set by 35 secondary teachers for their pupils and notes that the majority of tasks fell into the category of low cognitive demand. Preliminary results from a second study point out the importance of seeing task-setting as a critical teaching skill. (CL)

Action research is an umbrella term referring to research by practitioners for the purpose of improving their practice. Action research in higher education is being conducted by a growing number of practitioners whose formal training is outside of the discipline of education research. This has precipitated a need for faculty development and…

A discussion on university reform is presented. Student and faculty views are given. (CK)