Describes an English instructor's experiences teaching at a private, English-language university in Bangkok, Thailand. Illustrates the difficulties the author faced in dealing with differences in cultures and learning styles and indicates the generative potential of such difficulties. Notes that the instructor's solution was to use a combination…

Examines and discusses ways in which both subtle and blatant bigotry toward nonnative speakers of English is present in departments of English. Illustrates how unfounded and inaccurate beliefs about English language proficiency create a hostile climate for a new population of students. Discusses the spoken and written English problems encountered…

How does a hiring committee define the requisite knowledge essential for a writing program administrator (WPA)? A survey of writing program administrators revealed that typical WPAs begin their academic career by taking a B.A. in English and then proceeding on a more or less predictable course with an M.A. in English and a Ph.D. in English,…

One of the most undemocratic, destructive forces in education today is the tracking of students in high schools, as a great deal of research suggests. Schools that have successfully detracked instruction demonstrate similar characteristics. After careful preparatory efforts were made (including forming a study group), a high school in Long Island…

Telecommunications networks were placed in 16 rural high school library media centers in 12 southside Virginia counties. With these units, the high school media centers are able to access the online public access catalog at Longwood College, the Lancaster Library's VTLS (Virginia Tech Library System) database. If a needed book is found, a request…

Composition instructors at two-year colleges embrace a large array of approaches and pedagogies, and forming a "teaching community" among these instructors is both a rewarding and a challenging commitment. The positive and negative implications of such a community were examined in a case study of one community college using…

A survey of the literature of instructional evaluation, highlighting appropriate methods for encouraging, assessing, and documenting effective higher education English instruction, can aid English departments in search of valid measures of teaching effectiveness. Before a department can formalize any system of assessment, it must first establish…

During the last four years, the English Department at Idaho State University embarked on an ambitious program of change in their writing program. The English Department established a cross-curricular writing course as a new, required course to bridge the gap between the freshman and junior years; a remedial writing course as a new, required course…

A tribute to the work of Ann Berthoff, this book--a collection of 6 poems and 21 essays--explores issues in the philosophy and teaching of composition. Each of the five sections is introduced with a poem by Marie Ponsot. Essays and their authors consist of (1) "Genre Theory, Academic Discourse, and Writing within Disciplines" (James F.…

Evidence indicates that the quality of a high school English department directly depends upon the effectiveness of the departmental organization. Despite the dangers of fragmenting and departmentalizing knowledge, some organization must be established for departmental work to be carried out. Among the variables which influence the organization and…

The growing demand on English departments for language-oriented courses for prospective teachers offers increased opportunities to the departmental linguist(s). English linguists possess a special expertise in language structure and analysis that gives them a unique advantage in designing and teaching such courses. A look at the training needs of…

The responses of 19 members of the National Council of Teachers of English (classroom teachers, secondary school department chairmen, curriculum directors, supervisors of English, members of college departments of English, and English specialists with state departments of education) to a letter requesting them to describe the kind of year they…

This book explores the central concerns in the teaching of English at the secondary level in relation to the changes in content emphases and methods during the last decade. It contains six chapters. "Personal Response and Writing" discusses purposes in writing, self-expression, form, roles of the teacher, categories of writing, and audience and…

Compares the structure of the headship of an English department with that of a chair, and then discusses the implementation of a chair.

Reviews current department efforts to emphasize the service functions of English. Suggests that the search for students must be tempered with the demand for quality in instruction and performance, whether the pursuit be of literacy or of literature. (MM)