Language, Schooling, and Society

This book contains all the plenary addresses from the 1984 International Federation for the Teaching of English Seminar on Language, Schooling, and Society held at Michigan State University in November, 1984. These include addresses by Anthony Adams (U.K.), Garth Boomer (Aus), Frances Christie (N.Z.), John Dixon (U.K.), Mary Maguire (Can.), James Moffett (U.S.A.), Robert Pattison (U.S.A.), Ian Pringle (Can.) and Louise Rosenblatt (U.S.A.).

In addition, the book contains the reports of the five Commissions that met several times daily during the Seminar: Language, Politics, and Public Affairs; Language and Schooling; Language and the New Media; Language, Literature, and Human Values; and Language and Multicultural Education.

It is these that give the book its great importance, as the leaders of English education in the five member countries of I.F.T.E. unite in a ringing cry for genuine implementation of a learner-centered growth model of English at all levels of the English language arts curriculum, and a united opposition to those external societal pressures which impede the work and the professionalism of English/language arts teachers.

Stephen Tchudi is professor of English at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he coordinates the interdisciplinary university seminars program and directs graduate programs in rhetoric and composition. He is author of some forty books for teachers, young people, and the general public, including The English/Language Arts Handbook: Classroom Strategies for Teachers Second Edition (coauthored with Susan Tchudi, Boynton/Cook, 1991). Tchudi is also past president of the National Council of Teachers of English and a member of the National Association for Science, Technology, and Society. He currently edits Halycon, an interdisciplinary humanities journal.