This monograph is the result of an ethnographic study, conducted between 1981 and 1982, to explore the social conditions under which migrant and seasonal farm workers and their families lived and their children were socialized. The study was conducted in a large agricultural county in New Jersey. At the time of the study, the county had slightly…

This paper contains ethnographic participant-observation field notes taken on a one-night visit to a "shooting gallery" in East Harlem (New York City) along with background information and commentary. East Harlem, also referred to as "El Barrio" or Spanish Harlem, is a 200-square block neighborhood on the upper East Side of…

An ethnographic study examined instructor uses of control, immediacy, and affinity-seeking behaviors in a large college lecture class. A class of 140 college sophomores was observed for 10 weeks, in an attempt to understand in a situational and non-quantitative manner, what instructor behaviors motivate students toward cognitive and affective…

A study of a subculture of Vietnam veterans on the Florida State University campus in 1989 uncovered a small, informal, and low-key group of men and women. The literature showed that the returning Vietnam veteran faced negative images and was a student misfit; the college experience of many was one of quiet desperation as they attempted to escape…

This article reports on an ethnographic research project that investigated the relationship between home language use and acquisition of academic English as determined by the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills (CTBS) scores. The subjects were 33 children ages 10 to 14 from bilingual Spanish-English families. Data on home language use was collected…

This enthnographic study examines the process of implementing an interactive videodisc program in a senior high school. The research questions were: What happened during the implementation process and what factors facilitated or hindered the implementation of the innovation? Descriptive data were collected through participant observation,…

Education may be seen as a form of verbal communication. Opinions about the part language plays in pedagogical communication differ according to the emphasis placed on: (1) the teacher (i.e., language as a means of transferring knowledge, as in the traditional teacher-centered concept); (2) the students (or language as a means of learning); or (3)…

A multidimensional perspective is provided of the achievement and educational experiences elementary school students of Mexican origin in a major northern city. To deepen understanding of the complex interplay of factors that ultimately cause many of these students to become educational casualties, traditional research methods of ethnography were…

A case study examined the brief conversations about writing that took place between a high school English teacher and two of his students. One illustrative writing conference conversation lasting 1 minute and 19 seconds shows how, through the push and pull of their short exchange, student and teacher simultaneously read the book, read the writing…

This study examined the possible sources of variability in sign language mastery in two deaf children of hearing parents. The study considered the interaction of environmental and innate factors within the framework of the "Nativization" hypothesis, which suggests that all language learners initially construct a linguistic system which…

This report describes a "culturally contexted" conversation analysis approach to the study of naturally occurring speech in supervisory conferences. The supervisors and teachers were participants in a graduate program for beginning teachers, and the conference's purpose was supervisory evaluation of teachers' classroom performances. Ethnographic…

A microethnographic study and intervention were conducted in a mixed-age preschool classroom with 3- to-5-year-old native speakers of English, Khmer, and Spanish. All were learning English and had native-language support. In the study's first phase, the language of five children was audiotaped during play time. In the second phase, the whole…

Research was conducted to consider in detail the intergenerational dimensions of bilingualism in the Puerto Rican community in New York City via the children of adult immigrants who had abandoned their native language usage and who later revived it. The issues in focus are language choice, language change, language use, and language learning. The…

An eclectic, ethnographic methodology is presented for studying the content and acquisition of children's environmental learning, knowledge, and interaction in a transitional economy in rural Sudan. Drawing on methods of geography, linguistics, and anthropology, the paper attempts to provide a valid alternative to most of the methods used in…

The promotion of literacy among minority groups depends in part upon educational and sociolinguistic discourse analysis. As a contribution to that effort, the present study provides data on the narrative in the language of Mexican-American adults by gathering and analyzing personal narratives produced in both English and Spanish. These narratives…