Loretta Kasper's
Biographical Information and Research Interests

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION:

Loretta F. Kasper, Ph.D. is Professor of English at Kingsborough Community College/CUNY. She regularly teaches content-based courses with an Internet component.

Dr. Kasper is an award-winning author; her article "Technology as a Tool for Literacy in the Age of Information: Implications for the ESL Classroom" was named "Best Article of the Year 2002" in the journal Teaching English in the Two-Year College. Reports of her work have appeared in a number of national and international journals among them, TESL- EJ, ITESL-J, English for Specific Purposes, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, and Teaching English in the Two-Year College.

She is the author of two content-based student texts, Teaching English through the Disciplines: Psychology (2nd ed.) (Whittier, 1997) and Interdisciplinary English (2nd ed.) (McGraw-Hill, 1998), as well as the professional volume Content-Based College ESL Instruction (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000).

Dr. Kasper serves on the editorial review boards of the journals Teaching English in the Two-Year College and Educational Technology and Society. She served on the editorial review board of the journal Reading Online from 1997-2000. She has also served as a reviewer for English for Specific Purposes, the special topics issue of TESOL Journal on Sustained Content Instruction, Collegiate Press, and Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Formerly the Kingsborough Community College liaison to the CUNY Online program and the Chair of the English Department committee on Computers in the Curriculum, Dr. Kasper presently serves as the Coordinator of Online English Courses for the College Now Program at Kingsborough Community College/CUNY.

Dr. Kasper is the owner and moderator of the e-mail discussion list, Content-ESL, a forum for the discussion of ideas and issues pertaining to content-based ESL instruction and Instructionaltech, an e-mail discussion list devoted to issues in the use of technology in instruction.

EDUCATION AND PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:

Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology (Psycholinguistics), Rutgers University.
Doctoral dissertation: The role of imagery in the acquisition of Spanish vocabulary.
Major course work in memory, cognitive processes, language acquisition, specifically the factors influencing and facilitating second language acquisition.

M.S. in Cognitive Psychology, Rutgers University.
Master's thesis: Learning and recall strategies in the acquisition of Spanish nouns.

B.A., Summa Cum Laude in Psychology, The College of Staten Island, CUNY.

M.A. in Spanish and Language Education, Brooklyn College, CUNY.

B.A., Magna Cum Laude with Honors in Spanish, Brooklyn College, CUNY.

CUNY Program of Study Abroad in Madrid, Spain.

POST PH.D. EDUCATION AND TRAINING:

Certificate in Adobe Photoshop from University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth

Certificate in Javascript from University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth

Certificate in Advanced WebCraft from University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. (certified in advanced web site design).

Certificate in Online Instruction from Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). (certified as an online instructor).

Certificate in WebCraft from University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth. (certified in basic web page design).

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE

Professor, Department of English, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY

Associate Professor, Department of English, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY

Assistant Professor, Department of English, Kingsborough Community College, CUNY.

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, The College of Staten Island, CUNY.

Instructor of English as a Second Language, English Language Institute, The College of Staten Island, CUNY.

Adjunct instructor of English as a Second Language, Kean College of New Jersey, Union, New Jersey

Instructor of Psychology, Bruriah High School, Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Coordinator of the Language Laboratory, Wagner College, Staten Island, New York.

Lecturer, Department of Languages and Literature, Wagner College, Staten Island.

Instructor of Spanish, Shulamith High School, Brooklyn, New York.

Supervisor of undergraduate research project in Cognitive Psychology, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey.  Responsibilities: advising student on research design and write-up of experimental research report.

Laboratory Instructor, Perception, Learning, and Cognition courses, Department of Psychology, Rutgers University.

Teacher of Spanish, French, Italian, Reading, and English as a Second Language, Intermediate School 96K, Brooklyn, New York.

RESEARCH INTERESTS:

Content-Based ESL Instruction; Metacognitive Factors in Second Language Acquisition; Technology in ESL Instruction; Reading and Writing as Integrated Skills

Content- or Discipline-Based ESL Instruction may be referred to as Interdisciplinary English.

What does this mean?

Interdisciplinary English means teaching English through the content of different subject areas.

Students learn psychology, computer science, biology, and other subjects as they perfect their skills in reading, writing, and speaking English. Students love this method of instruction, saying that it helps to prepare them for courses outside the ESL program.

Interdisciplinary English can be used with ESL students at a variety of levels. Lower level students enjoy reading short stories linked to topics in disciplines such as psychology. Students also become more aware, and so better, writers, as they learn the elements of good writing and how to approach different types of writing tasks.

More recently, the Internet has come to play a large role in Interdisciplinary English courses, and it is a wonderful tool that can be used to help students learn and improve reading, writing, and research skills.

To read about how I use the Internet in English courses, please visit my COURSE SITES page.

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