Employers want employees who can communicate effectively, work as part of a team, and think on their feet. To help students acquire these qualities, the faculty of health sciences and counseling at Vancouver Community College integrated a sociocultural training model into their human relations programs. Evaluations indicate that students'…

Explores new possibilities and limits of theater education through a role-playing project. Adolescent actors participated in workshops that were meant to improve physicians' communication skills with adolescent patients. Explains that the project also aimed at improving the adolescent actors' techniques in theater. (CMK)

This study contrasts two different ways of analysing interaction and participation in language learning tutorials: Social network analysis of frequency and QSR analysis of type of interaction. One task from three German beginners' language tutorials (one delivered face-to-face, the other two online) is analysed. A description of the background and…

The present study evaluates the relative effectiveness of two types of input-based instruction, structured input instruction (a structured input task only) and structured input instruction with feedback (the structured input task + reactive explicit feedback) for teaching English polite requestive forms, involving 45 Japanese learners of English.…

A practical guide for language teachers illustrates the different ways in which cameras can be employed in language work, with suggestions and advice taken from current experience. Teachers can be involved by making their own language training videotapes and focusing on an area of language, literature, or thematic interest directly applicable to…

This study compares the effectiveness of four experimental training programs designed to foster altruism in kindergarten children. Subjects were 97 children 4-5 years of age in six preschool classes. The children were assigned as a class to one of the six training and control conditions. The four training conditions were: (1) role playing; (2)…

This discussion of interactive learning activities focuses on cable television programs developed at the University of Quebec at Montreal to demonstrate the possibility of using televisions and telephones as interactive communications tools for varied learning. Activities included in the programs are described, including role play, problem…

Banpo is a village that existed 6,000 years ago near Xi'an in the Shaanxi Province of China. Artifacts unearthed from the Banpo site are all that remains of this prehistoric clan-based community. Five excavations conducted from 1953 to 1957 revealed the remains of 45 houses, 200-odd storage pits, six kilns, 250 tombs, and more than 10,000 stone…

This paper contributes to the growing debate in Japan about how to teach Japanese students to speak English effectively. It is argued that there must be a shift from learning about the English language to using English to learn and communicate about topics that are interesting and relevant to students' lives in Japan. Role playing is an effective…

This lesson plan imagines the student as part of a delegation to a special meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)-sponsored Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council being held in Brussels, Belgium, where the topic of discussion is a proposal by several NATO members to invite independent republics of the former Soviet Union to become…

Gives details of a simulated boardroom exercise for communication studies students, which illustrates aspects of role-playing, group processes, and mass media as the board decides on the amount and distribution of cuts for their local television station, taking into consideration competition from other television stations. (EAO)

Described are teacher education strategies which focus on three specific characteristics of the Geography 16-19 Project. These are the process of curriculum development, man-environment approach to geography, and enquiry-based learning. Presents a role-playing activity related to the proposed adoption of the project by a school's geography…

Argues that altruism among preschool children is dependent upon children's understanding of a variety of complex cognitive and social skills and that these skills can, to some extent, be facilitated by appropriate training programs. (Author/MP)

Describes two classroom activities that introduce critical-thinking skills into social studies instruction. One is a debate, followed by position papers, on the contribution of Christopher Columbus. The other is a simulation of a Constitutional Amendment conference. Discusses which parts of the lessons specifically focus on critical-thinking…

This paper describes a method of introducing ethics to a second-year class of civil engineering students. The method, known as a "structured controversy", takes the form of a workshop where the students assume the identity of stakeholders having an interest in a proposed development in an environmentally sensitive region. The instructor…