Research in the fields of education, linguistics, psychology, sociology, philosophy, politics, anthropology, rhetoric, and computer science has yielded a large body of knowledge about how language is produced and used in different types of communication, how language systems affect conceptual frameworks, and how language competence contributes to personal power, but the application of this research in education has been very limited. Language is the primary means for understanding and communicating ideas and for creating new knowledge. If schools can articulate a broad understanding of language and have teachers of all subjects guide students in organizing, synthesizing, and expressing their thoughts clearly through diverse languages, a large step will be taken toward improving students' thinking and communicating skills. A multidisciplinary approach to language effects and uses should yield greater understanding of life's choices. Class discussion provides a natural opportunity for probing the meaning of language. Through self-conscious attention to the flow of a discussion, appropriateness of questions and answers, extension and development of ideas, students learn to evaluate alternative perceptions of reality and make judgments about which perceptions are most logical and consistent. Students also need to be evaluated more frequently in ways that require language use to organize, relate, and draw conclusions from the information taught, and classes involving more written assignments and thoughtful probing of new concepts should be small. (MSE)