Learning a new sound system poses challenges of a social, psychological, and cognitive nature, but the learner's decisions are key to ultimate attainment. This presentation focuses on two essential concepts: CHOICE, or how one wants to sound in the target language; and LIMITS, or various challenges to one's goals vis-a-vis accent. Qualitative and…

Findings of a series of sociological studies on American men indicate that job conditions facilitating occupational self-direction increase men's intellectual flexibility and promote a self-directed orientation to self and society. In addition, jobs that limit occupational self-direction decrease men's intellectual flexibility and promote a…

This paper looks at independent housing needs of persons with disabilities and presents a policy statement developed by the Center on Human Policy in December, 1989. Noted are the results of a research review showing that housing needs are similar for all disability groups, that supports are a critical factor in housing provision, that housing…

When writing is taught through conferences between a student and teacher, the authority of the teacher profoundly influences what students think and say about writing. Also, as students learn to deal with their teacher's authority, they develop strategies for talking about writing tasks in voices that are authentically their own. An examination of…

This paper looks at the behaviorist phenomenon of microteaching through a neo-Vygotskian theoretical lens, employing a case study of two groups of prospective teachers being coached by a professor or clinical instructor. The paper attempts to broaden Vygotsky's notion of the zone of proximal development (ZPD) by conceptualizing the ZPD as a…

This study investigated two questions concerning the empowerment of teachers: (1) What meanings do teachers associate with the social practices and social knowledge that inform the social actions of teacher empowerment? and (2) What kinds of events seem to account for, or explicate, the accomplishment of teacher empowerment? Participants in the…

Using Amitai Etzioni's (1961) sociological model as a basis for analysis, the paper examines the relationship between central student characters and their chief reference group or significant other(s) in the schools as portrayed in three films: "If" (1969), "Child's Play" (1972), and "Educating Rita" (1983). Two…