Discusses how a unit using a Russian novel helped students experience a sense of glasnost in their classrooms and allows teacher/researchers to examine how middle school students respond to literature. Finds that using literature from other countries forces students to examine their own values in contrast with those of the characters. (MG)

Summarizes the findings of "The Veltman Report," published by the Hispanic Policy Development Project. Hispanic residents and citizens of the United States are learning English and using English in addition to Spanish, a language shift process that spans three generations. Components of language acquisition are outlined. Policy…

Reports on a study of the role of pupil age in scholastic performance among 4,123 Maltese primary-age students. Finds a strong and consistent age effect in Maltese, English, and mathematics achievement in three grade levels. Also finds that girls consistently outperformed boys in the three subjects. (CFR)

Presents research on using small groups to help students think and reason about literature. Examines various small-group activities in ninth grade English classrooms. Analyzes effective and ineffective small-group work. Concludes that effective small-group work requires coherent activities that result in the sustained production of student…

Five teachers using a conversational approach to language teaching with hearing-impaired students were studied. Teachers tended to exert a high level of conversational control, though conversational control decreased over time. The children (ages 4-10) exhibited language growth in their imitations and responses but not in spontaneous utterances.…

College English teaching in China aims at developing students' communicative competence, in which vocabulary size plays an important role. According to Basic Requirements in the College English Syllabus (1999), Chinese university students' vocabulary size should be 4,200 words. From investigation and a study of the research literature, the author…

Though high-stakes testing currently dominates educational policy, few studies examine the consequences of such testing for the teaching and learning of literature in secondary English classrooms. This study takes a multi-layered approach to specify how a high-stakes exam positioned students as readers of literary texts. Drawing on both critical…

Drawing from a six-month ethnographic study, this article explores the negotiation of gendered identities through classroom literacy practices in an urban high school, paying particular attention to how gendered identities are interwoven with those of race, class, and other social identities during literary discussions. I draw upon the notion that…

This article examines the evolution of language-in-education policy in Hong Kong during the first six decades of British rule (1842-1902). In particular, it analyses the changing roles and status of the English and Chinese languages during this formative period in the development of the colony's education system. The textual and statistical data…

Research has found evidence for the validity of remedial and developmental English courses in preparing students to pass freshman-level English courses. To determine whether similar validity could be demonstrated for remedial and developmental English courses at Tennessee's Walters State Community College, the percentage of former remedial and…

This monograph studies the relationship between parental attitudes and student achievement in inner-city schools, and compares parental and teacher attitudes regarding parental involvement in elementary education. Seventy-one teachers from two inner-city elementary schools in Memphis (Tennessee) and 30 parents of students from one school responded…

A study examined whether dramatization exercises generated more interpretive and evaluative thought among students regarding theme and characterization within a short story than traditional methods of answering questions or writing an essay regarding the story. Subjects, 35 junior English students at a suburban southern California high school,…

This study presents a descriptive account of the effects of two computer based tutorial programs used in high school Pre-Algebra and English classes via an interactive computer technology laboratory environment. The laboratory settings described, joint enterprises developed by a state university, the United States Air Force, and two public school…

Presented are the results of a questionnaire completed by 467 teachers from 32 states who teach English at the elementary school, secondary school, and college or university level. The questionnaire elicited information concerning teacher morale, critical issues facing the profession, the mood of teachers, and teacher curriculum interests and…

A study examined the effectiveness of a collaborative learning model for the teaching of a modern English grammar class at the college level. The model involved student presentations based on the explanation of material from assigned readings in the texts; daily quizzes on the material from the assigned reading; and peer grading of the daily…