The following article was copied from the Muskingum College Learning Strategies Database and is reprinted here for the use of the teachers who visit my web.site.

http://muskingum.edu/~cal/database/general/motivation1.html

Student Needs

The following paper was presented at Rhetoric and Technology in the Next Millennium: An Asynchronous Online Conference, June 15-30, 1998, and is reprinted here for the use of the teachersю  

http://members.aol.com/Drlfk/rhetoric.html

ESL and the Internet:

Content, Rhetoric, and Research

Kingsborough Community College/CUNY

ABSTRACT

This paper describes a classroom study of a content-based instructional model that engages high intermediate¹ ESL students in sustained content study within collaborative learning communities and uses information technology resources to hone linguistic, academic, socioaffective, and metacognitive skills through an activity called focus discipline research (Kasper, 1998a). The paper describes how focus discipline research derives from the principles of cognitive learning theory and second language acquisition research and how it incorporates the four critical elements of a pedagogy of multiliteracies as outlined by The New London Group (1996). The paper goes on to detail the study, illustrating how pedagogical activities engaged students in situated practice, overt instruction, critical framing, and transformed practice, and it concludes by offering both quantitative and qualitative support for the efficacy of focus discipline research in promoting "multiliteracies."

ISSUE: An increasing number of educators are calling for high standards and challenging learning activities for at-risk students. New technologies can provide meaningful learning experiences for all children, especially those at risk of educational failure. Schools that capitalize on the relationship between technology and education reform will help students to develop higher order skills and to function effectively in the world beyond the classroom. Achieving such fundamental change, however, requires a transformation of not only the underlying pedagogy (basic assumptions about the teaching and learning process) but also the kinds of technology applications typically used in classrooms serving at-risk students.

The endless EFL E-textbook for teachers who don't want to spend all their time preparing

 "Not..., but..."