Studies the pedagogical growth of two student art teachers as measured by their language during practicum interviews. Measured the level of description of teaching activity and level of explanation of activity success. Delineates the value of this research and notes factors that limit the drawing of broader conclusions. (DSK)

Contends that the language of business and the language of education do not always translate neatly. Notes that more than 200 U.S. and Canadian community colleges are trying to solve this problem by adopting a "common language" solution called Work Keys. Most of the centers that use this solution are housed at community colleges. (AMA)

Draws on sociocultural theories of language and learning and research on bilingual families to examine home language practices of trilingual-immersion students. Ethnography was used to explore daily language use at home, children's views of their identity as trilingual, families' values of maintenance and additional language learning, and reasons…

Discusses three areas in which English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) students are assets to middle school teachers. They provide (1) teachers with the opportunity to become a student of the English language again; (2) teachers with unique information around which thematic units can be designed; and (3) other students with the confidence that their…

A study investigated how four anglophone Caribbean students enrolled in an American college perceive their own language and writing in standard English, the morphosyntactic and semantic features that emerge when they write in standard English, and the extent to which discourse features revealed in their writing are attributable to Creole…

A study in interlanguage pragmatics investigated the effect of three types of rejoinder (positive, negative, absent) on non-native informants' choices of strategies to perform complaints, requests, and apologies. Results show strategy choice differentially affected by rejoinder type, suggesting that findings from studies using different production…

This study compared the effect of two language sampling elicitation contexts, free play and picture descriptions, on variability in the use of African American English (AAE) with 65 normally developing African American children (ages 4 to 6) from lower socioeconomic status homes. Picture descriptions elicited more AAE usage overall, a larger set…

Describes a stylistic analysis component added to a training course for the use of literature in an English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) context. The aim of this component was to help the student teachers explore the effectiveness of applying stylistic analysis of poetry to the design of language activities for use in EFL classes. (12 references)…

Clarifies the teaching of academic language functions (ALFs) at the secondary level. It is recommended that teaching should emphasize concepts underlyng ALFs, the forms for realizing them, and their names. Some pedagogic implications of the microfunction-macrofunction difference are outlined, and suggestions are given for teaching each type. (25…

Examines the current situation in China surrounding the teaching of French as a Foreign Language. After the decline of French teaching subsequent to the Cultural Revolution, the language returned to favor around 1970. Chinese students are infatuated with French; many study it as a first or second foreign language. Additionally, French literature…

Examines language in the workplace, specifically the construction industry in Hong Kong. Provides detailed information on language use in a professional context at the time of Hong Kong's return to China and shows that written communication is mainly in English, while spoken language is predominately Cantonese. (Author/VWL)

Suggests that students can do meaningful language research within family and society. Looks at language use and family discourse strategies in a 3-generation immigrant family in which language and culture separate the generations. Argues that many of the tensions created by language loss in this family can be seen in the educational domain. (SR)

Illustrates the impromptu use of German among adolescents in a multilingual school in inner London, where the aesthetics of performance play a significant role in the negotiation of identities and in the repositioning of an official code at school. (Author/VWL)

Examined self-assessment as a means of teacher learning that develops teachers' understanding and use of discourse strategies to support instructional conversation. Found that teachers' analyses did not grow more precise, but interpretations of talk revealed growing ability to treat discourse as an object of knowledge. Explored features of the…

A Chicana bilingual teacher from Arizona lived with a middle-class Mexican family during a 5-week Mexican immersion program. Her complaints about "harsh reactions" toward her and her Spanish showed how her use of a few stigmatized characteristics of nonstandard Spanish were judged by standard Spanish speakers to indicate an uneducated…