LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE APPROACH
Presented by: januario mendes
What is a Language Experience ?
Language experience is a strategy to develop and
reinforce reading and writing by using personal
experiences and natural language. In this approach,
the students themselves initiate experiences through
projects and other resulting interactive activities. In
their authentic language students dictate their
experiences to the teacher who translates their story
into written English. With this documentation as a
basic material for reading and writing instruction, the
teacher helps the students see the connection
between what they signed and what was written. The
teacher uses this language experience to develop new
vocabulary, comprehension and basics of English
Language Experience : A Method
Language experience approach is a method actually
uses students own words to help them read.
Your student may draw a picture of Dad in a car. In
that case you would write underneath the drawing;
Dad is in the car.
You continue to collect drawings your students
makes and write a short sentence underneath each
drawing. A picture of a playground would read. We
went to the playground.
When you’ve collected enough pictures you make
them into a book for your students to read again
and again. Write underneath the drawing a
description your student gives for drawing. This
way your student will remember much better
what is written.
First you will write every word and sentence.
Slowly your student will begin to trace over the
words you have written and finally the student
will write the words and sentences alone.
Some people use this method as a first approach
to reading in order to help their student
understand that what they’ve drawn and what you
have written is a form of communication between
the student and yourself.
The Language experience approach supports
children’s concept development and vocabulary
growth while offering many opportunities for
meaningful reading and writing activities through
the use of personal experiences and oral
language.
Language Experience: A Teaching
Approach
Introduction Language Experience
1. Personal Experience ( Dewey,1938)
2. Literacy Instruction ( Huey,1908)
3. Approach Community Literacy (Higgins,1995)
4. Service Learning ( Herzberg,1994)
Five-Step Process
1. Teacher and student discuss the topic to be the
focused on the dictation. Observations and
opinions are exchanged. Oral Language skills are
developed and reinforced.
2. The Students dictates an account or story to the
teacher, who records the statements to construct
the basic reading materials
3. The students read the story several times until
the story has become quite familiar. Reading
comprehension is made easier by the fact that the
student is reading material that is self generated.
4. Individual story words are learned, the other
reading skills are reinforced through teacher-
designed activities related to the story.
5. Students move from reading their own dictation
to reading other-author materials as they develop
confidence and skill with reading process.
Theoretical Support
As Jones( 1986) notes, the basic approach to LEA
as outlined in the five-step process above draws
on several key language learning principles.
HOW DO WE MOST EFFECTIVELY ADAPT
THE LEA?
Providing all the input for sometime and taking the
heat off the student ( Wales,1994,p.203)
Advocates the use of picture or word cues to
initiate and contextualize topics of conversation
(Ringel,1989)
Cooperative Learning
LEA follow-up lessons on:
Grammar
Lexicon
Pronunciation
Spelling
The LEA
Although there is no one “super method” for
language teaching, LEA offers a useful and
effective method for beginning literacy instruction
by linking the students’ language and experience
in learning
Language experience encourages students to
explore, think and talk. This talk, during and after
the language experience, provides many
opportunities to expand students’ vocabulary,
extend their knowledge of grammar, and scaffold
their interactions.
Language experience activities also help to
provide a bank of experiences that students have
in common. These can be recalled and referred to
in subsequent learning.
Language experience activities are often related to
current topics or to students’ own lives. They can
be particularly effective when linked to a specific
text.
Examples:
●viewing a DVD about native New Zealand birds
before or after reading Did You Shake Your Tail
Feathers?
●visiting the supermarket after reading Finding Mum
to find the items in the story and making a meal out
of the ingredients.
●using Skype to talk to students in another school
before or after reading Talking to Nanny.
The role of the educator
to model the writing and the thinking aloud
process;
to develop writing skills and introduce different
writing genres through mini-lessons;
to promote rereading as a strategy for students to
remember what they are writing about;
to develop purpose of writing and writing for an
audience;
to demonstrate appropriate writing conventions.
Observers will see:
students and teacher thinking aloud about their
experience while writing about it;
the teacher modelling the translation of students’
signs into an appropriate written version;
students rereading what they have dictated
Students documenting their language experience
through pictures and written compositions
How to record language experience:
Ask students to sign what they are learning.
Act as a scribe and write in English what is signed.
Sign back to the students to make sure they agree
with the story that was written down.
“Think aloud” to demonstrate processes to
students.
Relate the complexity of the text to the language
level of the students.
Let the students contribute drawings or other art
to enhance the writings.
Use mini lessons to focus on specific language or
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