Using communicative activities with learners from diverse cultures can create excitement and empathy while promoting the acquisition of English. This article offers ESL/EFL activities that foster interpersonal tolerance among students who have experienced intergroup conflict. The activities are based on the idea that there are four levels of…

A language experience approach to teaching reading is a multifaceted program that encompasses more than just self-expression. (Author/JM)

Recognizing the utility and limitations of traditional curriculum and of present language programming for its mostly Navajo population, the Ganado Public School District developed the GLAD (Ganado Language Arts Development) project, which aims to: develop literacy in kindergarten through third grade students; expand and enrich the pedagogical…

Describes how a language experience approach was used in a workplace literacy program for adult immigrant railroad workers in Australia. Describes how the workshop built on participants' developed oral skills and life experience to create texts that were relevant, interesting, and comprehensible to these learners. (SR)

Details educational procedures basic to Title VII Academic Excellence Project P.I.A.G.E.T. (Promoting Intellectual Adaptation Given Experimental Transforming), a model disseminated nationally to agencies serving young culturally and linguistically diverse children. Notes that the procedures critical to the program's success were…

Claims one way to provide students with a powerful literacy is to structure an educational environment in which language is all encompassing. Describes the literacy program at Emerson Elementary Magnet School (Westerville, Ohio) as one such program. (NH)

Describes an adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) program using the Language Experience Approach and designed to serve immigrants and refugees. Discusses the use of educationally naive bilingual tutors and a combinatory instructional format. Argues that the program is pedagogically sound, cost effective, and encourages the students to take…

Too often adult literacy programs seem based on the assumption that, if learners work hard on skills for six months, they will have "acquired" literacy, as though it is a set of skills adults can "get" from a tutor (Kazemek, 1985). One study of 20 adult literacy classes in eight U.S. states found basic (not higher level) skills the predominant…

Describes the plight of the Roma (the preferred word for "Gypsy") in Romania, and the Roma Tutoring Project, intended to help Roma children succeed in school. Discusses the project's activities to sponsor the writing of children's books in Romania based on Roma children and culture, and with a tutor training project based on the language…

Considers the use of sociodramatic play to help preschool children with their literacy development. Describes and assesses the Scrapbook Project at a university laboratory preschool. In this project, children dictate stories to their teacher, choose props to illustrate their stories, and act out their stories. (BB)

Describes a joint literacy program between Drexel University in Philadelphia and the Center for Literacy which is based on three nonintrusive instructional procedures: the language-experience approach, individualized reading, and expressive writing. Presents case studies of three adult learners. Evaluates the program's effectiveness. (SR)

Outlines a program at St. Olaf College which allows language majors and others with language skills to take required humanities courses in German. This program offers students a chance to apply German skills that they have and at the same time meet their general education or major requirements. (LET)

After discussing the differences in the physical, social, and attitudinal environments of advantaged and disadvantaged children, this paper describes the educational settings and intervention practices that were designed as part of the Carolina Abecedarian Project to assist young disadvantaged children in attaining educational competence. An…

Over the past several years, teachers at the West Virginia University Child Development Laboratory have used the language experience approach to develop the literacy skills of young children. To increase child involvement, a scrapbook project for 4-year-olds was conducted each Wednesday for 1 academic year. Each child received a scrapbook and…

The extent and impact of adolescent illiteracy, brief descriptions of several successful programs designed to combat adolescent illiteracy, and a more detailed description of one of those programs are included in this collection of articles. The first article argues that while experts may disagree about the numbers of illiterate adolescents and…