The reading instructor working with adult "beginners" needs to have an open mind, be willing to be imaginative and adventurous, and think positively. The basic approach requires the instructor to build beginners' confidence; encourage beginners to participate fully, think for themselves, and learn to learn; involve beginners in planning; and…

The language experience approach is a reading methodoloy that is highly organized, highly structured, and very systematic, but that allows teachers to teach without texts. It is a multiple, variegated set of activities designed to serve one purpose, namely, the instructional use of pupil's own language. As such, there are five interrelated aspects…

A study examined two contexts in teaching a language experience approach (LEA) reading lesson to kindergarten children. The five children--Black, Hispanic, and White students of varying ability levels--first developed a group story of their own using the Van Allen language experience approach. The teacher recorded the story, and the students wrote…

In Luxembourg, children learn to read in two languages beyond their native Luxemburgish. Beginning in the first grade, children start on German, and in second grade, they begin the study of French and continue to study the two languages intensively throughout the elementary school years. How do elementary school teachers approach such a formidable…

A Presentation of Paulo Freire's approach to literacy, this article offers biographical information, a discussion of his educational concepts and a detailed description of his methodology. A two part appendix offers a list of key words and pictures of situations. (MW)

The teaching of poetry can be used as a language experience approach to develop good writing skills in elementary and high school students. This paper discusses the techniques a "poet-in-residence" employed to help students create poems and, indirectly, to teach the function of such writing skills as parts of speech, punctuation, and…

This paper discusses three types of writing experiences, "Writing Roulette,""The Even-Steven Swap Game," and "The Open-Ended Story with a Slant," that can be used in a writing workshop for disabled readers at the secondary level. Each activity emphasizes writing but provides motivation for students to read each other's work. Students will have…

Information is given in this booklet on how to implement a language experience approach to reading readiness instruction in the kindergarten based on the experiences of teachers in the Burrillville Reading Observes Necessary Communication Objectives and Skills (BRONCOS) project, a Right to Read program in Burrillville, Rhode Island. An…

When the author's family spent a year in Germany, two of the children attended German schools, where they were forced to learn German for all communication. On the basis of that experience, it is suggested that classrooms employ situations similar to total immersion in language teaching. Teaching and learning for communication depend on three…

This paper reports on an experiment carried out by the Chinese language program at Oberlin College to use play production as a means of teaching spoken Chinese. The experiment was inspired by the fact that teaching spoken Chinese cannot be solved by traditional classroom methods, particularly at the intermediate level. The lack of texts, the…

An overview of the language experience approach and suggestions for implementing it at all levels of instruction are presented in this booklet. Based on the assumption that it is impossible to isolate reading instruction from other language functions, a multimethod approach is described which focuses on the linguistic, conceptual, and perceptual…

The classroom use of the key vocabulary, developed by Sylvia Ashton-Warner as a reading approach--rather than as a reading method--which utilizes the child's actual experience, is the major concern of this book. Materials used and tested for a number of years present examples, outlines, and various methods for eliciting children's dramas through…

In teaching reading, teachers should understand the three categories of language information which all readers draw upon in the processing of information. These three categories are (1) grapho-phonic, the information from the writing system and from the phonological system of oral language; (2) syntactic information, the information from…

The study of psycholinguistics seems to enable English teachers to make their classes more effective and more enjoyable. (JH)

Presents strategies for teachers: 1) to demonstrate to children the need for content revision; 2) to help children clarify the content of their writing; 3) to show children the need for editing changes; and 4) to assist children in their editing effort. (SD)