The transition from school to university is most usefully seen in terms of cultural adjustment. Language, which is perhaps the most potent and tangible expression of culture, is both the biggest obstacle to successful integration into an alien culture and the most powerful means for unlocking it. (HOD)

Argues that English teachers should write and reflect on their own writing process and allow their students to know that they are doing so. (HOD)

Offers guidelines, activities, and teaching methods that can be used in English classrooms serving bilingual, multicultural, and migrant youth. (RL)

Urges writing teachers to get back to these basics: valuing writing and enthusiasm for writing, showing interest in and responsiveness to students as writers, encouraging reading for pleasure, making use of insights into the writing process, and helping students develop self-editing that sharpens ideas while eliminating mechanical errors. (RL)

Presents a selection of 21 brief (about two pages) narratives by primary and secondary teachers on STELLA (Standards for Teachers of English Language and Literacy in Australia) panels in Victoria and Queensland. Notes that each narrative describes a moment of "good" English/literacy teaching. (RS)

Addresses a protracted struggle in Queensland about how to configure the relationship between language, literacy and textual studies in the English senior syllabus. Discusses a conflict between contrasting viewpoints about the nature and scope of subject English, the pedagogical stance that teachers should take in relation to their students, and…

Describes four samples of research designed to gauge the extent and effectiveness of those literary experiences which many English teachers regard as basic to instruction. (RB)

Shows that the need to choose between literature-centered or experience-centered English instruction is a delusion, because instruction in literature also adds to the child's experience of language. (RL)

Improvisational exercises can be used when teaching dramatic literature, but only when they reflect the universal issues of the play text being studied and when they lead students to a deeper understanding of the dramatic work. (RL)

Explores some of the links between research and the classroom practice of English teaching. Presents a brief survey of some research findings. (RL)

Explores the disparity between what is desirable in English classrooms and what is available. (HOD)

Describes and comments on a proposed bilingual education program for Australian Aboriginal children. (TO)

Relates some of the concerns parents express in regard to school reports of their children and stresses the need for reports to take account of such concerns. (HOD)

Discusses the relationship between individuals and societies, equating human experience and development--particularly language development--with fiction making. Notes the implications this outlook has for English teachers. (RL)

Explains that throughout the past one hundred years, the question of how Shakespeare plays should be taught has been a point of contention in the New South Wales secondary English curriculum. Outlines the two main stances, the traditional literature-based approach and the active approach with emphasis on the text as play script. Discusses the…