INTERDISCIPLINARY ENGLISH

Loretta F. Kasper, Ph.D.

Kingsborough Community College/CUNY

McGraw-Hill, 1998

ISBN: 0-07-289207-2

This book offers high-intermediate to advanced ESL students extensive practice in reading and writing academic texts. As students read selections in 10 mainstream college subject areas, they become familiar with academic vocabulary, discourse patterns, and concepts. Vocabulary and comprehension questions are provided for each reading, and the writing prompts that follow each reading encourage students to articulate and expand knowledge. Finally, each unit contains links to literary and visual media as well as to Internet resources.

Table of Contents

Introduction                                  

• Academic Skills                
  • Reading, Writing, and Study Skills
  • Vocabulary Development
  • Doing Research

Unit One: Linguistics

• Linguistics: An Interdisciplinary Discipline
• Language Acquisition in Humans
• Language in Other Species

Unit Two: Environmental Science

• The Greenhouse Effect
• Earthquakes
• The Causes of Earthquakes

Unit Three: Computer Science

• The History of the Computer
• Artificial Intelligence Research
• The Millennium Bug, or What Will Happen to Our Computers on January 1, 2000?

Unit Four: Mathematics

• The Mathematical Brain
• Chaos Theory
• Fractal Geometry

Unit Five:  Business and Marketing

• Product Development and Merchandising
• Consumer Behavior and Market Targeting
• Advertising

Unit Six: Psychology

• Mental and Emotional Disorders: Schizophrenia
• Phobias
• Sleep and Dreaming

Unit Seven: Sociology

• Socialization and Culture
• Interaction and Group Behavior
• The Socialization of Eating Disorders

Unit Eight: Physical Anthropology

• Physical Anthropology and Darwin's Theory of Human Evolution
• The Language of the Early Hominids
• A Dramatization of Science: The Play, Inherit the Wind

Unit Nine: Biology

• Cell Biology
• DNA and Genetics
• The Biology of Behavior

Unit Ten: Diet and Nutrition

• The Basics of Nutrition
• Converting Food to Energy
• Eating Disorders: Anorexia and Bulimia

Bibliography