Bulacan State University Graduate School Academic Year 2011-2012

A Report for Trends in Reading Instruction

Presented by: Perlie Geron

What is the Language Experience Approach?

The Language Experience Approach is based on

the belief that thoughts, speech, and writing are interconnected. The teacher writes down what a student says and then reads it back to the student to develop their print awareness.

If you can think it, you can say it. If you can say it, you can write it. If you can write it, you can read it.

Three components of the Language Experience Approach:

A childs life experience

which is communicated to an adult.

Language
Learning

Dictation--the child tells

about an experience in his/her words to an adult who writes it down.

Dictation

Childs Language learningthis Experience

occurs when the childs written language is read, practiced and used to teach other literacy skills.

Philosophy of LEA
1. What a child thinks, she can talk about.

2. What one talks about can be expressed in writing. 3. Anything a child or a teacher writes can be read.
4. What a child has to say is as important to her as what other people have written for her to say.

LEA through the eyes of a Child:

Language Experience Approach Objectives:

Develop Print awareness Concretize the idea that thoughts and ideas can be spoken and written

Develop ability to verbally express experiences

Enhance ability to listen to others and understand the meaning of what they say Heighten childs ability to use pictures, charts and reports to report facts

Strengths of LEA
Highly motivating to students. Language

experience matches students interest with learning activities Enjoyable & satisfying for most teachers Children are reading early success built-in

Strengths of LEA
Approach is individualized. Children

progress at own rates, less stigma for slower readers Integration of all the language arts listening, speaking, reading, & writing Approach does not require expensive materials

Weaknesses of LEA
Time demands on teacher. Teacher must

organize instruction, take dictation, plan individual programs, & monitor No daily lesson plans provided No preplanned scope & sequence of skills No control of initial vocabulary presented Limited number of commercial programs available to assist teacher

Language Experience Approach WHEN and HOW?

Used for beginning or remedial reading

instruction Recognizes that a childs oral language background can be used to develop reading skills Teacher transcribes childs own words to create stories that are then used as the childs first reading material

 Involve individualized and personalized

Language Experience Approach WHEN and HOW?

instruction Skills taught as they become necessary rather than in the basal sequential fashion Components include dictation, story writing, & reading Recognize that children learn to read by a variety of materials & methods!

Definition of a language experience activity in LEA

An activity that learners usually do together. It

can be an experience that the group has had. The teacher helps the students write their experiences. Examples: a trip, animal or object for the class to observe and discuss, guest speaker, observing people or surroundings.

Procedures of the Language Experience Approach:

Decide what experience the students will focus on. Write their ideas on chart paper to allow them to see

them in written form. (Make sure you use their words and their names!) Make different types of records such as bulletin boards, big books, or charts. Use these records for other literacy opportunities such as take home books and sentence reading activities.

LEA PROCESS
Motivational Activity
Discussion Time Dictation/Individual Writing

Read the Story

Reinforcement

LEA PROCESS IN DETAIL

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

6.
7. 8.

Teacher motivates child to describe a certain event Teacher writes down students dictated words Child & teacher read story together Child rereads story orally Child recopies story (if possible) Child illustrates recopied story Teacher does something special w/ story (binds into book form, displays, mini-scrapbook, etc.) Children encouraged to read each others books

THEORETICAL SUPPORT
1. Learning occurs from the known to the unknown. The learner begins with his or her own spoken language. 2.Learning occurs most effectively in a general to specific direction. In reading, students must be immersed in a meaningful context of written language for learning to be most effective.

THEORETICAL SUPPORT
3. Struggling adult readers usually have low self-concept as readers and need to be assured of some immediate success 4. Adult learners are often time conscious and need to leave each lesson with a feeling of accomplishment. Everyone reads at every LEA session

LEA GUIDING PRINCIPLES

LEA is integrative
listening

speaking

writing

Reading

Existing Language of the Child

Oral Language

 Language is for making meaning and is best acquired through meaningful use and practice.

Writing knowledge is acquired most easily with the acquisition of reading Literature models and motivates language instruction.

Approaches to LEA
I. Key Vocabulary Approach II. Group Experience Chart

III. Individual Descriptions of Illustrations Done in Group Setting

IV. Individual Experience Story V. Individual Experience Stories Using Tape Recorder

I. Key Vocabulary Approach

(Veatch, 1979 & Ashton-Warner, 1971)
Elicit words from child that have special meaning (emotional value) What is your favorite
word? or What is your scariest word?

Print the word on a piece of tagboard

Child traces word

Actively engage child with the word drawing a

picture, copying it on chalkboard, etc.

 Motivation teacher stimulates interest of students

(reading aloud, showing object, recalling exciting event, etc)

II. Group Experience Chart (whole class dictation approach)

Discussion give children time to discuss before

dictating. Encourage oral contributions of all students.

Dictation Story Writing - individual students

contribute words, one sentence at a time, to compose the story. Teacher prints words on chart (so class has permanent copy), modeling reading each word as she writes. Usually, student repeat the words after each sentence is written.

 Review words with child

II. Group Experience Chart (whole class dictation approach)

they are flashed. No effort should be made to sound out the words. Words not instantly recognized should be discarded on the assumption that they are not sufficiently important to the child yet.

Child regularly brings words to the teacher & pronounces them as

Store words
(folders, ring files, word banks, etc)

Word activities
story telling, classifying words, acting out words, typing words,

etc.

 Reading Completed Story - teacher may first

II. Group Experience Chart (whole class dictation approach)

reread entire story using a hand or pointer, then the entire group or individual may do another reading. Children enjoy repeated readings! Remember, student may not be actually reading, simply repeating words memorized with assistance of visual cues.

Follow-Up Activities - skill work or applications.

Skills may include, auditory discrimination, visual discrimination, sequencing, sight vocabulary, phonics, context clues, or comprehension. Applications might include illustrations, reading to friends, acting out the story, etc.

Typical Examples
The Duck Pond We went to the duck pond. It was fun. Rolando fell in. He got wet. The teacher was mad. Ha-ha-ha. The End Our Day Today we had P.E. We played kick ball. It was fun. James got to second base. The blue team won. The End.

 Motivation Teacher motivates children & leads brief

III. Individual Descriptions of Illustrations Done in Group Setting

discussion on topic Sample Topics: Happiness is. . . Sadness is . . .A friend is. . .I feel afraid when. . .If I had a million dollars. . .

Children Illustrate children complete the sentence by

illustrating. Teacher circulates & writes down the childrens words, such as A friend is my Daddy. or A friend is a big yellow zebra. The teacher writes down the exact words the student says.

Make a Class Book - include all student pages

IV. Individual Experience Story

Most common LEA

Stories are individually dictated

Demands the most time from teacher

Teacher often enlists help from other adults

Most powerful of all LEA! One on one contact between teacher & child is pronounced

V. Individual Experience Stories Using Tape Recorder

Variation of individual experience story

Student dictates into tape recorder

Teacher listens & transcribes into printed form Requires less direct contact time Lacks intimacy of person-to-person dictation

Not often used with beginning readers

The Language Experience Approach can be used to model and practice the following:
One-to-one correspondence by reading and pointing to

words Left-to-right movement of reading Concept of capital and lower-case letters Letter-sound relationships Punctuation

Use LEA for multilevel related literacy tasks.

Reread and copy. Read on a tape. Add new vocabulary to picture dictionary. Match sentences to pictures. Complete a cloze with word bank (or without bank if ready). 5. Sequence sentences. 6. Write your own account of the experience. 7. Write a related piece. 8. Use the modeling to write a similar piece about a different topic.
1. 2. 3. 4.

Examples of ELL individual retelling based on pictures and modifications for group retelling if limited English skills.
Source: Whole Language Strategies for ESL Students
By Gail Heald-Taylor
1991; Dominie Press

Sample as often taught. Problems:

Why in caps?
Many errors. No evidence of focus on important ideas.

See Language Experience Approach resources in www.netvouz.com/ jgordon

for suggestions.