Awareness about second language learning and use is a concern of second language learners as well as native speakers of the majority language. The need for awareness-raising among majority language speakers is, however, not generally acknowledged. Native speakers are often ignorant of important cognitive as well as sociocultural and affective…

This article suggests that the principle of object-relatedness, introduced by Vygotsky and expanded by A. N. Leontiev, can be used to conceptualize human subjectivity within a profoundly social view of human development. This is achieved by reformulating the premises of cultural-historical activity theory to include the notion that material…

Education acts in this country have been created with the express purpose of preventing students from slipping through the cracks. Unfortunately, legislation has not been successful. By disaggregating the student dropout rate in Texas and juxtaposing this information to the prison influx rate in 2001, a profile of the population entering Texas…

Erikson found sex differences in the play configurations of pre-adolescents who were given a variety of toys and blocks. Wamback, Cramer and Hogan's replications of Erikson's work revealed that sex differences of this type lack sensitivity to inter-school variation among subjects, time or locality. Two possible alternatives to Erikson's hypothesis…

Identifying and considering public attitudes towards various aspects of water supply and sanitation services by planners and decision makers represent an important developmental element relating to the quality, efficiency, and performance of those services. A sample of 1000 Palestinian adults completed a questionnaire assessing attitudes towards…

This article examines a critical cultural thinking framework advanced to develop an analysis of difference as it pertains to race, gender, and sexuality. We examine student journals to document their use (or lack therein) of these critical cultural thinking concepts and how these concepts influence students' understanding of difference. While…

In the last decade, Internet provision has become widespread within schools in many economically developed countries. Proponents of such technology have stressed the potential benefits to be gained from innovative teaching and learning opportunities. Yet, herein purity and danger are seen to co-exist, with unregulated "pollutants"…

The authors offer the image of our nation as a nautical convoy. Some boats are large, well built, and able to ride out the heaviest of turbulent seas. Others are smaller, but still quite sturdy, and able to survive. Many however, are fragile, meagerly equipped, and easily capsized in rough waters. This convoy is in the midst of a perfect storm…

This paper shows how cultural models mediate children's "Discourse about reading" (in Gee's sense), which is considered as a boundary object between the community and school. An empirical case study of the stories of 7- and 8-year-old children, in conjunction with classroom ethnography show gendered positioning in a Discourse about reading, which…

Background/Context: In the field of educational research, conventional wisdom holds that primary-level schooling, specifically literacy acquisition, promotes economic mobility for individuals and economic development for the nation. This belief is rooted in human capital theory, the causal argument claiming that state investment in schooling or…

Teaching English in Turkey has its own potential problems due to the lack of authentic language input. Turkey is a foreign language context. This hinders learners in their mastering English in a short time. Moreover, other problems caused by poor instructional planning contribute to this process negatively. With these potential hindrances, the…

The growing evidence of the link between diet and health has not been lost on consumers in the United States. As awareness of the diet-health link has increased through nutrition education, consumers have changed their diets. Although there is still considerable room for improvement in meeting Federal food-guidance recommendations, nutrition…

Preparing for retirement can sometimes be problematic since it means that one is aging and moving into another life cycle change. This paper will review some factors to consider in making the transition a more positive experience. The impact of retirement on older citizens is frequently neglected in the counseling arena. In the current youth…

Ten stories, in poem and narrative form, told by Anna Nelson Harry, are presented here. The stories represent a portion of the oral tradition of the Eyak, an Alaskan native nation of which few native speakers remain. An introductory section chronicles the history and decline of the Eyak, the research undertaken to preserve their culture, and the…

Analysis of the Korean verb "na-ka-ta" ("to get out, exit") focuses on why an expression such as "kyengkicang-ey na-ka-ta" ("someone goes out/in to the sports arena") is acceptable only in the context that the person's entering the arena is for the purpose of a contest, while it becomes semantically…