What is the explanation for American students' comparatively mediocre academic performance? "A Mirror for Americans" finds part of it in how they are taught in primary schools. Comparisons with East Asian teaching are supplied by 50 years of research findings. Grove asks not that we copy East Asian teaching approaches, but that we use…

The text is designed for self-study of the grammar and pronunciation of standard oral North American English. It is not intended to replace learners' dialects but to provide alternative ways of speaking for appropriate situations. The book is divided into two main sections. The first outlines pronunciation differences between Standard English (SE)…

This "insider's guide" to American and Japanese communication and misunderstanding is based on the premise that Americans and Japanese have different goals in communication; the American goal is to make messages negotiated between individuals explicit, while the Japanese goal is to keep messages implicit and assumed within the group. In…

This is a comparative analysis of the Japanese and American languages and cultures. The following are discussed: verbs, kinship terms, category terms, apologies and thanks, honorifics and postpositional particles, and levels of usage. A final section relates conclusions about linguistic patterns to culture patterns. (AM)