Beginning in the nineteenth century, a plethora of western Christian and secular philanthropies introduced "top-down" philanthropic initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa to promote education and "development". There seems to be a complex link between the agendas of international philanthropies and their home governments' broader…

The importance of collocations, i.e. idiosyncratic binary word co-occurrences in the context of second language learning has been repeatedly emphasized by scholars working in the field. Some went even so far as to argue that "vocabulary learning is collocation learning" (Hausmann, 1984, p. 395). Empirical studies confirm this…

The European University Association (EUA) established in 1994 a Quality Assurance Pool of current and former presidents/rectors prepared to serve on small teams that conduct institutional evaluations, when invited, in order to advise leaders of the host universities on the quality of their various operations and how to improve it. At a seminar…

In the process of perfecting oral performances of selected scenes from Eudora Welty's "The Optimist's Daughter," it is important to study point of view and character as they pertain to the play. Four aspects should be considered to understand the point of view: (1) the character's story, (2) the position from which the narrator speaks,…

This essay shows how the construction of literature curricula and the study of literature can contribute to civic education. The paper describes the anti-civic forces now at work in literature programs in U.S. schools and explains why these forces exist. The report suggests how literature programs can strengthen the underpinnings of a…

This discussion of the speech act of thanking looks at the basic functions of the act and responses to it in American English. It is argued that in general, "thank you" expressions are used to express appreciation of benefits and to enhance rapport between interlocutors, and that this basic use is extended to the functions of conversational…

The paper describes the system of rater comments used in an American College Testing (ACT) Program English language test designed for use with Japanese secondary school students learning English as a foreign language. The writing portion of the test consists of two short essays, each scored by two native speakers of North American English, using a…

The Newberry Library, (Chicago, Illinois) lays claim to holding within the Edward E. Ayer collection the finest singler collection of books on the culture and history of native america. This paper discusses the mandates and challenges that confronted the Newberry staff when it mounted its quincentennial exhibition entitled, "American in…

Providing instruction in language theory is an innovative technique for use in remedial and other composition courses in the two-year college. Such innovations provide intellectually stimulating material to students who lose interest when confronted with traditional grammar and composition. Students are acquainted with American Edited English in…

For Asian Americans, learning only the skills of verbal communication is not sufficient--they need to develop a sense of appreciation for eloquence, to understand the urgency of freedom of expression in a democratic society, and to internalize the value of speech as an instrument for self-enhancement. The remarkable differences between the East…

A college course in American culture, designed for students of English as a second language as an introduction to both American culture and university content courses, is described. The course was developed based on the philosophy and techniques of ethnography and foreign language pedagogy, and requires a combination of student participation,…

A discussion of teaching culture through the use of films focuses on how German Cinema films can be used successfully as a required extracurricular activity in German second-language-instruction. This kind of extracurricular activity is seen as a two dimensional educational experience. From the students' point of view, everything about seeing a…

Arab Americans are a very diverse group. Misinformation about Arab culture plays a significant role in American perceptions and understandings of Arab American students. Whenever major events occur in the Middle East, Arab Americans become the focus of investigation. However, the Arab American community has remained relatively silent. The media…

This keynote address by a native Vietnamese speaker who did not learn English until he was college-age, through the now obsolete "grammar-translation" method, recounts his difficulties in learning to converse orally in English. He stresses the need to teach conversational English to English Language Learners (ELLs) in addition to…

This paper examines art, a discipline that bears striking parallels, and differences, in the way it is practiced and valued in the United States and Japan. In Japan, art is a valued part of the elementary curriculum warranting as much time as science and social studies. In the United States, art is generally thought of as something extra to do if…