Testing Academic Reading

Brian Altano is the author of 14 textbooks, including Writing Processes and Structures and Reading Processes and Structures, published by the University of Michigan Press, and Creative Grammar, a three-level grammar series published by Spotlight Learning. His most recent books are Public and Private Writing by Kendall Hunt and the Emerging Communicators for ESL published by Allwrite Editions. Prof. Altano has taught ESL, literature, and writing at Bergen Community College in Paramus, New Jersey for more than 25 years. Prof. Altano has twice been a Visiting Fellow at Princeton University, and has also held Visiting Professorships at Ramapo, Kean, Union, Middlesex, Rutgers, and N.J.I.T. He was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship in Florence, Italy and an Oldrini Foundation Fellowship in Rome, Italy. He has lectured extensively on language learning and translation at national conferences throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe. A professional translator and interpreter specializing in Italian, Spanish, French and and Latin, Prof. Altano has translated Notas Fuera Del Tiempo by Victor Arango (Spanish), the short fiction of Carlo Emilio Gadda (Italian), Alberto Moravia (Italian), and Guy de Maupassant (French), as well as computer and technical manuals and the legal documentation for the Parmalat Trial in Italy for the European Union.

Prof. Altano is also a professional storyteller, who has told his original stories in performances throughout the United States (New York, Miami, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Austin), and in Austria, Venezuela, Italy, France, Canada, and Morocco. Much of his short fiction has also been published. Prof. Altano has also written and lectured extensively on educational issues. “Language Minority Crossover Students in the ESL Classroom” was a concept that Altano originated. It was later renamed “Generation 1.5.” Articles on this issue appeared in the Princeton University Fellows Report and in Innovations Abstracts (NISOD Publications). To address problems with remedial education, Prof. Altano also researched and wrote Grammar Without the Teacher, an innovative approach using a flipped classroom and technology to streamline remediation. Prof. Altano delivered lectures on the topic at the National TESOL Convention in New York, the New Jersey TESOL Convention in New Brunswick, NJ, and published articles in the Princeton University Fellows Report and in Innovations Abstracts (NISOD Publications). The online text of Grammar Without the Teacher is Prof. Altano’s second collaboration with Kendall Hunt Publishers.