This article is a reflection of the author's experiences teaching a course titled 'Women In Islam' [WIS] in an English Department at a medium, public, Masters granting, Liberal Arts university in the Midwestern United States. This paper argues for the importance of teaching WIS through a multi-genre, interdisciplinary, and global approach. The…

Larry Lesser is a Professor in the Department of Mathematical Sciences at The University of Texas at El Paso. He is also a UTEP Distinguished Teaching Professor whose awards include a 2016 Minnie Stevens Piper Professor Award, the 2012 International Sun Conference Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Award, a 2011 UT System Regents' Outstanding…

Reverend Father Professor Amechi Nicholas Akwanya is one of the towering scholars of literature in Nigeria and elsewhere in the world. For decades, and still counting, Fr. Prof. Akwanya has worked arduously, professing literature by way of teaching, researching, and writing in the Department of English and Literary Studies of the University of…

Over the last two decades in many countries, culturally responsive, multicultural and bilingual approaches to teaching have largely been replaced by standardised curricula and pedagogy, rooted in a political shift toward neoliberalism that has pushed business models of school reform. I argue that neoliberal reforms, by negating the central…

A symposium in the November 2006 issue of "College English" addresses the question, "What should college English be?" In this article, the author presents his answer to this question--it should be a functional approach to English studies. By English studies he means everything that is done in English departments. Most English departments teach…

Argues that composition cannot be taught apart from reading, that reading means only the reading of great writing, and that the teaching of reading and writing is best handled by people who have studied literature and created some themselves. Offers suggestions for the improvement of the undergraduate English curriculum. (FL)

Reviews the growth of business and technical communication courses as college courses in universities. Documents the move to "professional" communication in English departments. Explains why technical communication dominates "professional" communication. Argues that faculty who teach business communication in business schools…

Presents an interview with Richard Lanham, Professor of English at UCLA, about his wide-ranging career, which has included work in rhetoric and style, composition theory and the teaching of writing, the implications of electronic text, and copyright law in the entertainment business. (SR)

Discusses the need for a reformed English curriculum. (HOD)

Meant primarily as a brief synthesis for consultants and supervisors in state departments of education, this statement represents an overview of the prevailing instructional scene. It notes the current swing to the right in educational approaches, looks at the emerging trends in federal concerns, examines the current thinking concerning teaching…

Maynard Mack, Emeritus Sterling Professor of English at Yale, discusses his pioneering work with the oral interpretation of literature in the graduate and undergraduate English classroom, making the point that such oral techniques need not be limited to the drama or speech departments. (Author/SJL)

Discusses reactions of foreign language departments with declining enrollments and hence less funds and the impulse to shift a focus on the means and purpose of instruction. Suggests that it is important to preserve face-to-face direct coaching in language learning and to expose students to the Western European heritage that shapes the experience…

Argues for the importance of teaching literature in English departments in Chinese universities. Presents a number of countermeasures to combat policies promoting a shallow "pragmatism" in English teaching in China today. (Author/VWL)

The comprehensive approach to balanced literacy mandate relies on teachers understanding of the skills and strategies that reading and writing demands. State and city departments of education must look for ways to learn from the voices of English language art teachers.

Discusses what is wrong with graduate schools in English, including lack of creativity, the irrelevance of much of the training for the doctoral degree, the attention paid to obscure points of literary scholarship, and the emphasis on publishing instead of good teaching. Notes the similarity to criticisms made 45 years ago. (EL)