Motivating college students is challenging. Professors must be energetic, enthusiastic, and current in their field. Typically, once a college student selects a major, the motivation to be successful within that discipline is more intrinsic based on interest associated with the major. However, undecided majors who are enrolled in baccalaureate…

This essay regards the licensing of digital content in universities. The author states that the academic community has overwhelmingly adopted course-management software systems such as Blackboard to distribute electronic course materials to students. She argues that such use presents a significant problem: the absence of any institutional…

German textbooks have grown too large and too diverse in emphasis, inhibiting the promotion and maintenance of German beyond the first college semester of language study and destroying author and publisher initiative to produce books for any level higher than the elementary level. (Author/CB)

Examined the academic and curriculum implications for social work education of the "Looking After Children" materials as pilot tested at two British universities. Found that the materials provided an excellent tool in preparing students for child welfare practice, offered a structure through which learning could be integrated with…

Answers questions on basic applications in the field of speech communication of the Copyright Act of 1976. Defines copyright, explains what is and what is not copyrightable, details the procedure for copyright registration, and discusses "fair use" of copyrighted materials in classroom teaching, scholarly and commercial writing. (PD)

Teaching materials for university-level second language learners were created with the aim of raising the learners' awareness of the rhetorical organization and salient linguistic features of essays. The teaching method relied heavily on explicit instruction and essential metalanguage. Concludes that explicit genre-based instruction with the…

Describes the Chinese-language program at Portland State University. Elements of this program include newspaper and classical courses; textbooks from China, Taiwan, and English-speaking countries; the use of characters on the first day; and a diverse student body. The university's goal is to make a solid Chinese education available to anyone in…

Probably no other concept comes closer to encompassing the core of personality psychology than the concept of the self. This teaching activity provides instructors with a self-contained teaching module--including lecture material, an in-class activity, suggestions for in-class discussion, and supporting references--on the topic of identity…

Discusses the use of the Internet in developing English language teaching materials in the context of world Englishes and describes a course titled "Sojourn to World Englishes" that was offered to students majoring in English at Open Cyber University of Korea. (Author/VWL)

Looks at the Quebecois TV show, "Un gars, Une fille" used in a university French course to teach the socio-cultural reality that underlies all linguistic utterances in a university-level French course. Attempts to identify what makes the show more authentic than videos and CD ROMs that accompany most language textbooks in French.…

This paper addresses the problem of faculty members being confronted, in or out of the classroom, with students' personal reactions to some of the subject matter, especially sex and gender material, found in today's college sociology courses. The paper suggests some ways in which sociologists view student sharing of personal reactions and…

Presents a case study of the business Japanese program for intermediate and advanced students at the University of Utah. Notes that when offering courses in Japanese, colleges are challenged on how to cope with diversification for the purpose of study, specifically in business Japanese courses. Concludes that it is imperative that American…

Discusses concept maps produced by students enrolled in a half-credit distance education history course. Topics include evaluating the effectiveness concept maps as a tool for instruction and for measuring the quality of learning. Student concept maps are compared with those prepared by the authors of the course materials. (46 references) (KRN)

Focuses on a particular teaching experience where a contemporary fiction work featuring high tech has been used as a source material in English for science and technology courses, and how this approach has had a positive impact on students' motivation to learn English as well as on their overall performance in the foreign language. (Author/VWL)

A meta-analysis was conducted of simple confirmation feedback, which informs the learner whether a response was correct or incorrect, and feedback which provides the correct answer. Following initial selection of 72 studies of computerized and printed instruction, 15 studies were identified which met the selection criteria of involving: (1) adults…