On Loretta L. Kasper’s ‘New Technologies, New Literacies: Focus Discipline Research and ESL Learning Communities’

Kasper is an instructor at Kingsborough Community College/CUNY and has written extensively on reading, writing, technology and the ESL student.  This is a brief summary of her article in Language Learning & Technology and my own thoughts on focus discipline learning and the use of technology.

Kasper reports on findings of ESL students’ reading and writing pass rates at the high-intermediate level relating to focus discipline research.  The study addressed three questions:  1.  whether focus discipline research facilitated students’ acquisition of basic liteacy skills; 2.  do students who use focus discipline research more likely to pass reading and writing tests at higher rates than those who do not use focus discipline research; and 3.  whether technology has a significant impact when students use focus discipline research.

Briefly, focus discipline research provides students with the opportunity to develop and refine literacy skills and strategies as they build a strong knowledge base through sustained research in a discipline they have chosen to study over time.  For optimum learning, focus discipline research is taught as a collaborative process and incorporates metacognitive and schema knowledge.  (Ideally, students should be familiar with metacognitive and schema processes and respond, through written and oral exercises, on their own learing styles, awareness of information that they already bring with them to the learning process and as to how best utilize these skills and strategies for effective and efficient learning.)

In summary, Kasper found that focus discipline research does help to “develop and hone the multiliteracies they need . . not only in ESL learning communities, but also in academic, social, and professional contexts beyond the ESL classroom.”  (Emphasis mine)

Because discipline research creates and fosters a rich learning experience in a communal setting the implications for any teacher is that learning communally, through disciplined research, offers rich and important opportunities for all students, no matter what level.  As such, novice / beginning students of ESL gain much through use – if even at a very rudementary level – awareness of and appreciation for their own schemata and metacognitive processes.  (See SQ(4) R below for my own views on research on reading for information and my own experiences learning through research during my undergraduate years.)

     Lilies