Factors which influence the acquisition of a second language within the framework of the British educational system are examined in this study. An ongoing, 10-year, language experiment (1964-74) involving 18,000 students ranging in age from 8 to 13, concentrates on determining the desirability and practicability of starting modern language…

Marked incongruity exists between the present language teaching system in Australia and the nation's social structure. Few of the languages spoken in the community by major ethnic groups are taught in the schools and little effect of the society's pluralism is evident in objectives and methods. Three causes of this situation are examined, and new…

This paper reports on the development of the Youth Bends Easily Instrument designed to assess children's attitudes toward human differences. The instrument was commissioned by the Madison Public Schools (Wisconsin) to evaluate the Individual Differences program designed to help primary grade children deal with racial, physical, and social…

This book provides a framework for examining violence as a social issue in contemporary society. Discussion is limited to violence as it occurs in the United States. The book can be used as a teacher resource or a secondary-level reader on violence, giving an historical background and a discussion of violence as a social phenomenon. The framework…

Lesson plans and bibliographies compiled in this booklet were created by participants in a series of in-service workshops conducted to heighten awareness of sex-role stereotyping and its relationship to career education. The curriculum guide presents 15 high school lesson plans (units). Each unit includes, in outline form, the headings of Cluster,…

A survey of student attitudes and knowledge vis a vis the American political system is presented. Student performance in the areas of social behavior, political attitudes, political knowledge, and political education is described for 13- and 17-year-olds for seven variables--geographical region, sex, race, parental education, size and type of…

Psychological research on race and ethnic stereotypes and attitudes has been carried out from two points of view -- a social learning view and a psychodynamic view. Neither of these grasp essential components of young children's ethnic attitudes or prejudices, nor do they detail the major developmental factors leading to the growth of tolerance…

This course description outlines the general and specific objectives for a course on "Women in German Literature," which investigates the changing literary and social roles of women from the beginning of the 19th Century to the present: women as seen by man, by another woman and in introspection. This course description was successfully used in a…

Tested the future orientation of 228 Jewish and Arab adolescents. Results supported the hypothesized instrumental-expressive division between Jewish males and females and the primacy of higher education for Arab females; these gender differences are sustained by the developmental settings of Jewish and Arab adolescents. (Author/BJV)

Critiques the assumptions about the nature and meaning of disability advanced in social-psychological writing, suggests the origins of these assumptions, and proposes a return to a Lewinian/minority-group analysis of the situation of people with disabilities. Introduces the other articles in this issue. (Author/ BJV)

Responding to questionnaires, 983 Canadian high school and university students revealed the following reasons why their peers are unemployed: (1) work values; (2) business/government job creation; (3) educational system; (4) luck/contacts; (5) immigrants/women taking jobs; and (6) work experience/interview skills. These explanations are shaped by…

Examines American public discourse about civil rights in national magazines from 1939-1959, indicating three stages in the controversy: (1) a positive recharacterization of blacks, (2) an inclusion of blacks under the nation's ideographs, and (3) a final contest between segregationist and integrationist rhetorics. Discusses the potential for…

To test a facilitative-constraint model, data about marijuana use was collected from 4,859 high school students in 2 rural southern Georgia counties. The model was useful for predicting frequency of use and classifying students as users, experimenters, and nonusers. Access to drugs and identification with drug-oriented groups were strong…

Undergraduate students' personal and educational characteristics and attitudes about social, political, and educational issues are tabulated, based on data from a 1984 national Carnegie Foundation survey. (MSE)

A survey of the socio-political attitudes of Swedish high school students showed that male students were more systematically conservative than female students, except for the religiosity dimension, in almost all political party preference groups. Sex was shown to have a weaker effect on attitudes than political party preference. (Author/RM)