An attitude questionnaire completed by 60 British teachers of English and a media education survey completed by 20 of them indicated they do not agree that the national curriculum should be revised by returning to narrow prescriptions and dropping media education. Teachers support a broad-based approach including personal response and critical…

The recent publication of attainment standards in English for British students under the 1988 Education Reform Act is critiqued. Provisions and the recommended course of study are excerpted from the report. The report is criticized for failing to recognize existing good practice and not acknowledging the paramount importance of the individual…

Background: Although much has been written about the ways in which new technology might transform educational practice, particularly in the area of literacy learning, there is relatively little empirical work that explores the possibilities and problems--or even what such a transformation might look like in the classroom. 3D virtual worlds offer a…

Gives an overview of English educational practices in the United Kingdom. Focuses on the changes in the assessment of student achievement in English, with particular attention to high school English in England and Wales. (HB)

Argues that teachers in the United Kingdom should be focusing on development of confident and competent readers and writers in technologies currently available. Considers how the reader-writer relationship is affected by computer technologies and how those changes might translate into classroom practice. Identifies the need for a model that…

Feminism and gender in the construction of English as a university discipline and the historical development of English are discussed. Generally, English is studied by women and taught by men. The teaching of English today is examined through interviews with four university English department lecturers in the United Kingdom. (SLD)

In this interview, Gunther Kress proposes how English needs to expand beyond its traditional linguistic frame into a semiotic frame which recognizes not only the visual but other modes. He argues also for a shift to forms of production in which the acts of reflection and meaning-making are fused, rather than separating the production of new…

In this article we contrast two distance foreign language programs developed at two European institutions of higher education (the Modern Languages Program at the Open University, UK; and the English Program at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Spain) as instances of two pedagogical models used to address the many challenges posed by teaching…

This volume highlights the language and learning needs of pupils with English as an additional language in the United Kingdom. It includes chapters by British teachers and researchers working in this field. The book addresses a number of issues of interest to practitioners, scholars, teacher educators, and policy makers. Each chapter is prefaced…