Meeting ESL Students' Academic
Needs Through
Discipline-Based Instructional
Programs
Loretta Frances Kasper
Kingsborough Community College/CUNY
Statistics from institutions across the
nation show a dramatic increase in the population of ESL students (Crandall,
1993; Nunez-Wormack, 1993). Yet, at the
same time as the ESL population is growing, there have been drastic cuts in
programs designed to serve these students.
These cuts have been caused by budgetary problems facing colleges and by
a political climate calling for a limitation of developmental/remedial English
language courses at the college level.
As noted by Sarah Benesch (1993), the
political climate impacts ESL instruction in higher education in a number of
ways. Factors such as placement
procedures, assessment measures, academic credit, and access to content courses
are among those which drive the ESL curricula in colleges and universities
across the United States. ESL students
are often required to meet institutional standards for English language
proficiency before they can become fully matriculated into the academic
mainstream.
Therefore, their performance on
standardized reading and writing tests determines whether ESL students may
enroll in credit-bearing mainstream courses, or whether they must take non- or
partial-credit ESL courses. In
addition, there is at present a movement toward placing a time limit on the
total number of semesters a student may remain in these developmental/remedial
courses, thus requiring students to meet institutional standards for English
language reading and writing proficiency even more rapidly than ever
before. Ultimately, then, if ESL
students do not pass these tests within the specified amount of time, they will
be unable to earn a college degree.
So today, ESL students and educators more
and more are finding themselves in a climate of fiscal exigency leading to
program reductions compounded by the pressure of constraints in time to meet
institutional standards for English language proficiency. For these reasons, it is becoming ever more
incumbent upon ESL educators to develop instructional programs that will
facilitate and hasten the full transition of students into the college academic
mainstream. It is no longer enough for
ESL programs to teach students the four basic English language skills
(listening, speaking, reading, and writing).
Rather, we must now put these skills into the context of the academic
environment to enable our students to find a place in that environment, so that
they will not be isolated nor excluded from it. To accomplish this goal, we must redesign, or transform, our
instructional programs so that they better meet ESL students' academic needs.
Transforming
Instructional Programs to Meet Student Needs
Many colleges and universities have
attempted to meet ESL students' needs by modifying programs within the college
mainstream. To this end, they have
created interdisciplinary collaborations, in which an ESL course is paired with
a mainstream content course. In such an
academic course pairing, students are enrolled simultaneously in an ESL course
and a mainstream content course, for example, introductory psychology. Instruction is completely coordinated, and
the ESL and content instructors work together to develop parallel materials and
assignments.
Colleges may also attempt to meet ESL
students' academic needs by redesigning courses within the ESL program itself,
so that the content of a mainstream discipline becomes the medium of instruction,
the medium through which the English language skills are taught. In such a discipline-specific course, the
academic discipline, (for example, psychology), becomes the core of the ESL
course. All materials and assignments
are drawn from that discipline.
Students therefore use the English language to take in new information,
to expand knowledge, and to discuss issues in the context of that academic
discipline.
My own research (Kasper, 1994a; 1994b;
1995b; 1995c; 1995/1996) has demonstrated that discipline-based instructional
programs in the form of both interdisciplinary collaborations and
discipline-specific ESL courses are effective in shortening the time it takes
ESL students to meet institutional standards for English language proficiency. The following sections will describe the
rationale for and implementation of these programs, and will discuss the
advantages and problems inherent in each.
Interdisciplinary
Collaborations
Interdisciplinary collaborations set up a
dialogue between instructors from different disciplines. Instructors work together to facilitate the
transition from the ESL to the mainstream curriculum by designing instructional
activities that will better meet the linguistic and academic needs of the ESL
student population. Interdisciplinary
collaborations have evolved out of the need to assist ESL students who are
taking mainstream courses while still enrolled in the developmental English
sequence. Given the sophistication and
complexity of the ideas and material presented in these mainstream courses, and
the fact that many of them are taught lecture style, a great number of ESL
students find themselves overwhelmed and frustrated in these classes.
An interdisciplinary collaboration
involves pairing an ESL course with a mainstream academic course. Instruction in both courses is completely
coordinated, and ESL instruction parallels the topics that students are
studying in the mainstream course. For
example, in a collaboration between a course in ESL Analytical Reading and one
in Introductory Psychology, students studying the topic, "Learning and
Memory," in the psychology class might read the text, "Remembering
the Forgotten Art of Memory" by Scruggs & Mastropieri, in the ESL
class. A sample list of parallel
content area topics and ESL readings is provided in Appendix I.
Interdisciplinary collaborations can
significantly improve both content area learning and English language
proficiency. My own research (Kasper,
1994a) has demonstrated that academic course pairings have a powerful effect on
increasing students' average scores on measures of English language reading and
writing proficiency (80.4% versus 47.8%).
Moreover, these paired courses help ESL students perform at the level of
native English speakers on measures in the mainstream content area (average
scores, 79.9 versus 79.4, for ESL and native speakers, respectively). In addition to increasing scores on
assessment examinations, collaborative programs also appear to increase student
retention. ESL students enrolled in an
academic course pairing had a drop-out rate from the introductory psychology
course which was ten percent lower than average for the institution (Kasper,
forthcoming ESP).
Additionally, student feedback on these
interdisciplinary collaborations is quite positive (Kasper, 1994a). Students report that academic course
pairings lessen both their anxiety and their sense of being overwhelmed by the
academic content and the amount of material to be learned in the mainstream
course. The overwhelming majority of
students say that they would recommend this type of instructional program to a
friend.
What factors lead to the impressive
results brought about by interdisciplinary collaborations? Academic course pairings seem to work
because they enable ESL students to review content material in the secure,
comfortable, supportive environment of the ESL class. Moreover, because instruction is coordinated, students receive
multiple exposure to the subject matter at hand. The two instructional contexts allow for greater generalization
and consolidation of learning. Finally,
focusing on one subject area establishes rich schemata which are continually
activated and strengthened throughout the semester.
While I and many other researchers (e.g.,
Benesch, 1988; Brinton, Snow, & Wesche, 1989) have found academic course
pairings and other collaborative programs to be very helpful in meeting the
academic needs of ESL students, there are several significant problems which
often preclude offering such programs on a regular basis. First, collaborative programs require a
significant time commitment. Faculty
must be trained and must be willing to devote the extra time and effort required
to make these programs work. An
effective interdisciplinary collaboration requires that faculty meet regularly
and coordinate efforts to develop parallel instructional materials. Moreover, the ESL instructor should have, or
should cultivate, some expertise and interest in the content area course in
order to integrate the content material into the ESL class effectively and to
provide any extra help needed to understand the ideas and concepts
presented. Finally, ESL and content
area instructors need to attend each others' classes as often as possible.
Collaborative programs also cost
money. Colleges must be willing to make
adjustments in teaching loads and to provide released time to give faculty the
opportunity to plan and prepare materials and activities, to meet to discuss
progress and problems, and to attend each others' classes. In addition, colleges must be willing to
deal with the administrative and scheduling difficulties inherent in setting up
effective interdisciplinary collaborative programs.
In today's climate of financial exigency,
it is sometimes very difficult, if not impossible, for colleges to offer
interdisciplinary collaborative programs on a regular basis. Budgetary problems, therefore, many times
prevent ESL students from taking advantage of this unique opportunity to
improve their English language skills.
As a result, instructors need to design other programs that will meet
ESL students academic needs. When
circumstances preclude offering collaborative programs, we then have to turn to
redesigning and recreating the ESL program to make the content of academic
disciplines the medium of instruction and the core of our ESL courses.
Discipline-Specific
ESL Courses
I was faced with just such a
situation. My 1994 study (Kasper,
1994a) had demonstrated that interdisciplinary collaborations were highly effective
in meeting ESL students' academic and linguistic needs. The study, therefore, presented a strong
argument in favor of regularly offering such paired courses. Nevertheless, because of administrative and
financial concerns at my college, these interdisciplinary collaborations could
only be offered on a limited basis. I
therefore decided to redesign my ESL courses in an attempt to find an
alternative form of instruction which might provide my students with benefits
comparable to those obtained in the interdisciplinary collaboration.
I created a new ESL course, making the
academic discipline, psychology, the core of the course. I put together a text, Teaching English
through the Disciplines: Psychology (Kasper, 1995a), which contained the same reading
selections that students in the paired course had used. In essence, therefore, this newly-designed
course was identical to the ESL component of the interdisciplinary
collaboration; the only difference between the discipline-specific and the
paired courses was the psychology course pairing.
To test the effectiveness of my
alternative course, I conducted a study (Kasper, 1995/96) in which I compared
the performance of ESL students enrolled in an academic course pairing (with
Introductory Psychology) with that of students in a discipline-specific course,
where both courses used the same psychology texts and materials. As an outside check, I also compared their
performance to that of other students in our ESL program that semester who had
worked with literary rather than discipline-based texts. The results of my study revealed that on
examinations assessing English language proficiency, students in both
discipline-based courses performed at statistically equivalent levels (average
scores of 73% versus 75% for discipline-specific and interdisciplinary
collaborations, respectively), and both performed better than students enrolled
in the literature-based courses (average score of 48%).
As it had been in the interdisciplinary
collaboration, student feedback in the discipline-specific ESL course was quite
positive. In fact at the end of the
semester, students were asked whether they preferred ESL courses to use
discipline-based material or literature, and they indicated an overwhelming
(86%) preference for discipline-based material.
Subsequent
effects of discipline-based instructional programs
Preliminary results of a follow-up study
(Kasper, 1995c) of ESL students who participated in discipline-based programs
indicate that these programs may have beneficial effects beyond a single
semester of instruction. When the
progress of students enrolled in both the interdisciplinary collaborations and
the discipline-specific ESL courses was followed over several subsequent
semesters, some important benefits were noted.
First, when compared with the overall ESL population, a significantly
higher percentage of discipline-based students (69% versus 41%) was able to
complete the developmental/remedial ESL sequence and enter the mainstream
English composition course (English 22).
Moreover, these students earned higher grades than the average ESL
student in English 22. 85% of students
from both types of discipline-based courses earned a grade of A or B in English
22, as compared with only 69% of other ESL students taking the course. Second, ESL students who had been enrolled
in discipline-based instructional programs were more likely to graduate and
earn a degree. In fact, at present, 64%
of the graduation rate for ESL students at the college is accounted for by students
who have participated in some type of discipline-based program of instruction.
How do
discipline-based instructional programs work to meet students' needs?
The activities used in discipline-based
intructional programs require early on that ESL students use the English
language to analyze, interpret, critique, and synthesize information, thereby
teaching them the skills they will need to be successful in college. The texts and activities used in both types
of discipline-based instructional programs foster sophisticated uses of the
English language, both spoken and written.
In their efforts to comprehend
discipline-based materials, ESL students must use more advanced levels of
language processing (Brinton et al., 1989).
Working through a discipline-based text, ESL students become aware of
how to construct meaning from information stored in memory, how to extract
relevant information from the larger text context, and how to filter out
redundant or irrelevant information.
Specifically, discipline-based texts appear to encourage students to
construct schemata, help to increase metacognition of the reading process, and
lead to the use of efficient comprehension strategies.
Meaning construction, leading to enhanced
linguistic proficiency, is facilitated by incorporating and emphasizing
activities that require the ESL student to engage in, to interact with, and to
synthesize information from course texts (Kasper, forthcoming TETYC). By creating written responses to a
discipline-based text, ESL students articulate their understandings of and
connections to that text. Students are
encouraged to relate texts to their own experience, knowledge, ideas, and
reflections, as well as to view the information presented from a number of
different perspectives.
Thus, the instructional activities used in
discipline-based courses engage ESL students in a cognitive/intellectual
interaction with the course materials.
Such interaction helps to develop not only English language proficiency,
but also critical thinking skills, both necessary for a successful academic
experience.
Steps
to Follow in Designing Discipline-Based Instructional Programs
Given the rationale for offering
discipline-based instructional programs, how does one go about setting up such
a program? Developing a
discipline-based instructional program, be it an interdisciplinary
collaboration or an individual discipline-specific ESL course, is a
challenge. There are several steps to
follow in setting up such a program: (1) Choose a subject area that is of
interest to both you and your students, (2) Ask students which subject(s) they
plan to major in and develop the course to meet both students' interests and
their needs, (3) Choose discipline-based materials that are challenging, but
not frustrating, (4) Use a variety of textual material to expose students to
different styles of writing and vocabulary.
Include academic textbook chapters, magazine and journal articles, and
books. Have students read topical
novels or short stories, (5) Develop oral and written activities which
integrate and reinforce the four basic language skills-listening, speaking,
reading, and writing, (6) Vary activity to maintain interest, and include
audiovisuals whenever possible, (7) Help to consolidate content subject matter
and vocabulary by providing visual illustration through the use of topical
videos, (8) Allow course content to be flexible and modify it from semester to
semester as necessary to accommodate the needs of students.
Instructors should keep in mind that
interdisciplinary collaborations or discipline-specific ESL courses may be
built around any mainstream subject area.
If desired, individual ESL courses (courses within the ESL program
itself) may also be multidisciplinary in nature, so that material from a
variety of disciplines is used. These
multidisciplinary courses present students with the same types of activities
used in the interdisciplinary collaborations and discipline-specific courses
described in this chapter.
Multidisciplinary courses may be used with students at the intermediate
level or higher. I have found that even
ESL students having an entry level TOEFL score as low as 350 can attain
significant gains in English language proficiency from a multidisciplinary
course.
Teaching Academic Skills
An important part of a discipline-based
instructional program is teaching ESL students the skills they will need to
make the transition to and then to succeed in the college mainstream. These skills include how to listen to a
lecture, take notes, read a college textbook, and study and review for an
examination. Each of these skills
requires that students be able to identify important information in lectures
and texts.
Therefore, activities in discipline-based
courses should draw studnets' attention to critical course information by
emphasizing context clues, signal words, and rephrasing as ways of identifying
important points in a lecture.
Activities should also teach students to identify words or phrases that
signal definition, explanation, example, or contrast, as well as teaching them
how to restate information through paraphrase or consolidate learning through
summary. To make it easier to
understand lengthy academic texts, instructors should suggest that students use
the chapter summary or outline and section headings before reading to establish
a knowledge base for the material to be covered in the chapter, and thereby aid
in comprehension.
After students have identified and
comprehended important course information, they need to be able to demonstrate
their knowledge on an examination.
Skill in test-taking includes knowing both how to answer test questions
and how to study for the test. For this
reason, each discipline-based unit should contain an examination activity, so
students learn how to read and answer various types of test questions,
including essay and short answer questions.
Finally, discipline-based courses should
be designed to teach students how to conduct themselves in an American
classroom. Many ESL students come from
cultures where students are neither expected nor required to take an active
role in the class. As a result, these
students sit quietly and never participate in class discussions. To aid their full transition into the
college academic mainstream, ESL students need to become familiar with the
atmosphere of the American college class by learning how to participate in
class discussions and how to ask questions in a lecture-style class.
A detailed plan for a lesson that may be
used as part of an interdisciplinary collaboration or a disciplinespecific ESL
course is provided in Appendix II.
Conclusion
Through carefully designed instructional
programs, we can provide ESL students with the linguistic and academic tools
they need to succeed in college classes.
Discipline-based instructional programs help ESL students meet the
standards for full matriculation into the academic mainstream more quickly and
enable them to be more successful once they get there. Students own comments suggest that
discipline-based instructional programs build self-esteem and confidence in
their ability to function in an English-speaking academic environment. Moreover, these programs have been used
successfully with students from a variety of levels of English language proficiency.
The political and fiscal climate impacting
ESL instruction today demands the redesign and implementation of programs and
courses which will facilitate and hasten the full transition of students into
the college academic mainstream. Thus,
meeting the academic as well as the linguistic needs of our ESL student
population must become a priority of English language instruction. With their proven record of success,
discipline-based programs provide both ESL students and instructors with a
highly effective medium through which to meet those needs.
References
Benesch,
S. (1993). ESL, ideology, and the politics of
pragmatism. TESOL Quarterly, 27, 705-717.
Benesch,
S. (1988). Ending remediation: Linking ESL and
content in higher education. Washington, D.C.: TESOL.
Brinton,
D.M., Snow, M.A., & Wesche, M.B. (1989).
Content-based second language
instruction New York:
Newbury House.
Crandall,
J. (1993). Diversity as challenge and resource.
In Proceedings on the Conference on ESL
Students in the
CUNY Classroom: Faculty Strategies for
Success (pp. 4
19). New York: CUNY.
Kasper,
L.F. (forthcoming). Writing to read:
Enhancing ESL
students' reading proficiency through
written reponse
to text.
Teaching English in the Two-Year College.
Kasper,
L.F. (forthcoming). Theory and practice
in
content-based ESL reading
instruction. English for
Specific Purposes.
Kasper,
L.F. (1995/96). Using discipline-based
texts
to boost college ESL reading
instruction. Journal of
Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 39, .
Kasper,
L.F. (1995a). Teaching English through
the
Disciplines: Psychology. New York: Whittier.
Kasper,
L.F. (1995b). Discipline-oriented ESL
reading
instruction. Teaching English in the Two-Year College,
22, 45-53.
Kasper,
L.F. (1995c). Assessing the impact of
content
based ESL instruction: A follow-up
study. PSC-CUNY
26 Award, Number 666463.
Kasper,
L.F. (1994a). Improved reading
performance for
ESL students through academic course
pairing. Journal
of Reading, 37, 376-384.
Kasper,
L.F. (1994b). Developing and teaching a
content
based reading course for ESL
students. Teaching
English in the Two-Year College, 21,
23-26.
Nunez-Wormack,
E. (1993). Remarks. In Proceedings on the
Conference on ESL Students in the CUNY
Classroom:
Faculty Strategies for Success (pp.
1-2) New York:
CUNY.
Appendix
I
List of
Readings for the ESL Paired
and
Discipline-Specific Groups
Reading assignments in both groups
correspond to topics discussed in the introductory psychology course. Selections are taken from Teaching English
through the Disciplines by Kasper (1995a).
Psychology
Topic ESL Reading
Learning
and Memory: "Answering
Questions"
by Donald Norman
"Remembering the Forgotten Art
of Memory" by Thomas E. Scruggs
and Margo Mastropieri
Perception: "Seeing" by R.L.
Gregory
Physiological
Psych: "Right Brain, Left
Brain"
by Jerre Levy
Development: "Piglet, Pooh, &
Piaget"
by Dorothy G. Singer
Personality: "Psychological Hardiness
by Maya Pines
Psychopathology: "Crazy Talk" by Elaine Chaika
Appendix II
Discipline-Based
Lesson Plan
Discipline:
Psychology
Topic:
Schizophrenia
The lesson as described here takes
approximately 6 hours of class time to complete.
Lesson
Rationale:
This topic was chosen for several
reasons. First, psychology is an
interesting course and one which many students will take. It is also a course which requires a great
deal of reading which presents many new and technical vocabulary words. Psychopathology is an area of psychology
which many students find highly interesting and motivating. Moreover, there is a wealth of supplementary
materials available on this topic to help reinforce and consolidate learning.
Lesson
Objectives:
1. To introduce students to the types of
activities they will encounter in a course in Introductory Psychology.
2. To teach students about the mental
disorder, schizophrenia.
a. the definition of schizophrenia
b. the types of schizophrenia with symptoms of each type
c. the etiology of schizophrenia, including biochemical factors,
environmental factors, and genetic factors.
3. To discuss some of the famous people in
history who have suffered from schizophrenia; e.g., William Blake, Adolf
Hitler.
Lesson
Activities:
The readings will consist of a textbook
excerpt on the topic of schizophrenia, as well as the article, "Crazy
Talk" by Elaine Chaika. Sources:
Morris, Charles G. (1990) Psychology: An introduction, Seventh edition. Englewood
Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, (pp. 550-554) and Kasper, Loretta F. (1995)
Teaching English through the Disciplines.
New York: Whittier, (pp. 91-102).
The lesson will also make use of several
types of audio-visual aids:
a. Overhead projector transparencies, to supplement the lecture. Source:
Myers, David G. (1990). Exploring
Psychology. New York: Worth, pp.
355-357.
b. The video, "Broken Minds", an episode of the PBS series,
"Frontline".
c. The video, "Schizophrenia", an episode of the CBS series,
"48 Hours".
d. The TV movie, "Strange Voices", the story of a college
student who develops schizophrenia.
e. The PBS series, "Discovering Psychology" by Philip
Zimbardo, Ph.D.
Lesson
outline:
Prereading activity
1. Students listen as I read an example of
schizophrenic speech to illustrate the erroneous perceptions and incoherent
thought and linguistic patterns characteristic of this mental disorder. As the students talk about what was
different or strange about this speech, they are introduced to some of the
terminology that will be used in the lecture.
2. Students are then given the textbook
excerpt on the subject of schizophrenia.
After discussing this excerpt, students are asked to read the article,
"Crazy Talk."
Factual work
3. Class lecture and discussion of the
topic using the overhead projector with transparencies to illustrate important
points.
Extending activities
4. Students are shown the videos,
"Broken Minds" (Frontline, PBS) and "Schizophrenia" (48
Hours, CBS) to illustrate the points discussed in the lecture and to
consolidate learning.
Time permitting, students may also be shown the movie, "Strange
Voices", as well as "Discovering Psychology".
Discussion and analysis
5. Written examination on the topic of
schizophrenia. Students will be
required to write short, essay type answers to five questions.
6. If desired, this lesson may be further
extended through the reading of a novel with a psychological theme. I Never Promised You a Rose Garden by Hannah
Green is the story of a young girl who suffers from schizophrenia. The book is appropriate for intermediate and
advanced ESL students.
Lesson
Examination:
Directions: Please answer all questions carefully and completely. Be sure to include concrete examples in your
answers where necessary.
1. Define schizophrenia (10 points)
2. Name the four different types of
schizophrenia discussed in class (20 points)
3. List and explain with examples one
symptom for each of the four types of schizophrenia (20 points)
4. Name one person from history or the
news who you
think
suffered from schizophrenia. Explain
why you think this person is (was) schizophrenic (20 points)
5. Explain the etiology of schizophrenia
in terms of
(a)
biochemical factors; (b) environmental factors; and
(c)
genetic factors. Give concrete examples
such as we discussed in class (30 points)
Note: Additional information regarding the design
and implementation of discipline-based instructional programs, as well as
sample lesson plans, is available from the author.
Author's address:
Dr. Loretta F. Kasper
Department of English, C-309
Kingsborough Community College/CUNY
2001 Oriental Boulevard
Brooklyn, New York 11235