The employment of International Teaching Assistants in U.S. universities has caused concern with regards to the communicative competence of nonnative speaker TAs in undergraduate classrooms. Researchers such as Rounds (1985), Bryd (1986), Constantino (1986), Tyler (1990), Shaw (1994), and Hoekje and Williams (1994), among others have suggested that more research is needed on the performance of nonnative speaker TAs in specific disciplines.This study is an-attempt to describe the discourse skills of nonnative speaker TAs in Computer Science. The speech event of twelve nonnative speaker TAs was observed and video and audiotaped in teaching lecture and laboratory (programming session) classes. Three native speaker TAs of the same profession were also studied as a comparison group. A profile of each of the TAs was made based on field notes, interviews and student evaluations, to determine TA typologies along Bailey's (1982,1984) classification. The profiles also contributed to grouping the TAs into more skillful and less skillful TAs.The classroom observations were analyzed to determine whether NNSTAs encountered difficulty speaking comprehensibly and explaining the computer science concepts clearly. The other questions investigated included: the apparent degree and ease of student comprehension of the teachers; the amount of student participation allowed and encouraged; the degree of interaction in the classes; and the amount of rapport between the NNSTAs and their students.The rhetorical analysis of the discourse structure of the computer science classrooms revealed two genres. Descriptive discourse was predominant in the lecture sessions and procedural discourse was predominant in the programming sessions. Linguists have shown that there are interesting connections between discourse type and the interlocutor's choice of particular syntactic structures. The investigations in this study showed that the successful NNSTAs complied with these connections and the less successful NNSTAs did not. The discourse problems of nonnative speaker TAs stemmed mainly from their inability to use various cohesive ties and deictic markers appropriately.Finally, the study showed that despite pronunciation and grammatical deficiencies, NNSTAs' success in their classes was determined by their speech acts. The moreinteractive TAs who employed various illocutionary acts to transact disciplinary information were the more skillful TAs. / Department of English

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hawaii at Manoa, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 74-82). / ix, 82 leaves, bound 29 cm

Zugl.: Basel., Univ., Diss.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Thèse (M.A) -- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 2004. / Bibliogr.: f. 136-141. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Title from first page of PDF document. Includes bibliographical references (p. 42-47).

The problem with which this investigation was concerned was the development and implementation of a school-community informational system useful to administrators in planning and decision-making. From the data gathered it can be seen that: (1) Parent, teacher, and student groups were not unified in their perceptions and attitudes toward themselves, each other, and the school. (2) Teachers and the administration must share the responsibility for the learning program. (3) The administrative staff must promote faculty unity, teamwork, and teacher-administrative relationships. (4) The Administrative Team agreed that the data indicated the necessity of the principal, teachers, parents, and students participating in improving the school program. Ultimately the study concluded that: (1) the Campus Level Information System assists administrators in securing information to identify areas needing improvement, and (2) the Campus Level Information System assisted the Administrative Team in identifying and defining their role. This system promises to be useful in the assessment of student, parent, and teacher attitudes and perceptions.

Relationships are regarded as an important aspect of any organization's life. The purpose of this study was to investigate staff perceptions and experiences of interpersonal relationships between management and lecturers in a Namibian College of Education. I conducted a case study at the College where I teach. Two methods were used to collect data. Firstly, semi-structured interviews with two management members, two senior lecturers and two lecturers. Secondly, observation where practical aspects of interpersonal relationships in the College were observed. I used the interpretational data analysis technique to analyse my data. Themes and patterns were identified in the data, coded and sorted into categories. The study revealed staff unhappiness about the current situation in the College as far as communication is concerned. The College's hierarchical structure was described as top-down. As such, it does not allow for face to face communication. There is an absence of any social cohesion or sense of community. Relationships at a College level are characterized by personal conflict and difference. However, the study revealed a satisfaction with communication and relationships at a dl'partmentallevel. Five key features of interpersonal communication that are lacking in the College and that contribute to the unhealthy relationships in the College were identified. These are trust, respect, openness, feedback and the sharing of ideas and knowledge. Due to their absence, the College is divided into cliques. A strong desire for the establishment of interpersonal norms of openness, respect, honesty and trust was expressed. Participants expressed the need to establish an organization structure that allows for interaction with others in the College, flatter structures, teamwork and a collaborative cultu re. The study also emphasized participative democracy in building relationships. Participation in decision making is seen as satisfying the personal need to experience a sense of influence and achievement. There is evidence of a desire for distributed leadership where the College staff as a group of professionals lead the College collectively and collaboratively. There is a strong desire for a College where people are liked , valued, accepted by others and recognized for their efforts. Finally, Organization Development is recommended as an approach to enhance College staff relationships.

Listening for learning during lectures has been established to be a staged process. Listening's role during didactic andragogical events in the Bulawayo Polyte9hnic Business Studies Department's Business Communication lectures was investigated. Both the qualitative and the quantitative data gathered contributed to a statistical groundstructure and an ethnomethodological outline, which together combined into a balanced description of the listened learning .p rocess in that tertiary learning environment. Data sources included student and lecturer responses as well as observed learning during communicativeness skills development, and whilst learning in lectures and tutorials. The related literature was supported by the study's findings, confirming that individuals perceive, interpret and evaluate information directly in accordancewith their own lifeworld. This includes own learned technique which derives from inherent oral or literate culture base as well as from personal cameral preferences and endowments. The consequent individually different listened learning range constitutes a conventional normal dispersion. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Didactics)

Este trabalho pretende investigar a relação de jovens estudantes com a comunicação na contemporaneidade. A hipótese é que esses jovens estudantes, imersos no consumo dos meios de comunicação de massa e ao mesmo tempo possuidores de um discurso crítico em relação a eles, encontram na mídia um importante referencial para a construção de suas identidades. Nesse contexto, a mídia partilha com outras instituições socializadoras (família, escola e religião) a função de formação de ideias, valores e modelos de conduta, contribuindo para a produção de disposições de habitus na contemporaneidade. Para examinar a hipótese aqui proposta, concebi e ministrei um programa de comunicação e educação (Comunicar para Mudar o Mundo, ligado à ONG Repórter Brasil), durante o 2º semestre de 2007, para alunos do 2º e 3º anos do Ensino Médio da E.E. Ministro Costa Manso, no município de São Paulo. No decorrer do curso, concebido como instrumento para aproximação e compreensão do universo simbólico e cultural do grupo analisado, foram produzidos os materiais quantitativos e qualitativos em que se embasam os resultados apresentados questionários de práticas culturais, questionários de competências em relação à comunicação, diários de classe e produções escritas dos alunos. Também por meio do curso foi possível investigar a influência da escola como mediadora da relação entre os jovens e a mídia. A esse respeito, a hipótese é que a escola pode atuar como mediadora qualificada no sentido de formar jovens mais conhecedores, maduros, críticos, ativos, sociais e criativos em relação à comunicação. Argumento ainda que abordagem da comunicação em suas vertentes intrapessoal, interpessoal e midiática pode colaborar para que os jovens estabeleçam com a escola uma relação referenciada no saber. / This work intends to investigate the relation of young students with the communication in the contemporaneousness. The hypothesis is that these young students, immersed in the consumption of the mass media and at the same time owners of a critical speech regarding them, find in the media an important referential system for the construction of their identities. In this context, the media shares with other institutions (family, school and religion) the function of formation of ideas, values and models of conduct, contributing to the production of arrangements of habitus in the present times. To examine the hypothesis here proposed, I conceived and administered a program of communication and education (Comunicar para Mudar o Mundo in english, To communicate to Change the World , linked to NGO Repórter Brasil), during the 2nd semester of 2007 to High School students of E.E. Ministro Costa Manso, a public school in the city of Sao Paulo. During the course, conceived as an instrument for approximation and understanding of the symbolic and cultural universe of the analyzed group, there were produced the quantitative and qualitative materials in what the presented results are based questionnaires of cultural practices, questionnaires of competences regarding the communication, diaries of class and written productions of the pupils. Also through the course it was possible to investigate the influence of the school as a mediator of the relation between the young persons and the media. About this particular subject, the hypothesis is that the school mediation contributes to form more knowing, mature, critical, active, social and creative young persons regarding the communication. I also argue that debating communication in all its levels (intrapersonal, interpersonal and massive) can help young persons establish a relation with the school based on knowledge.