This article describes collaboration between three university professors and six preschool teachers who used photo-narration and the Language Experience Approach to support the language development of young children. For more than a century, educators have used children's personal experiences as a basis for language and literacy instruction. The…

Published research shows that English speakers gain literacy skills up to the 7-year level more effectively when taught using a language experience approach rather than a word reading approach (reading common words plus phonic reading). It is suggested that this is because of the almost unique nature of English phonology, that is the strengthening…

One of the central challenges globalization and immigration present to education is how to construct school language policies, procedures, and curricula to support academic success of immigrant youth. This case-study compares and contrasts language experience narratives along Elena's developmental trajectory of becoming an urban science teacher.…

This article describes two educational settings in Nigeria where teachers adapted a language experience approach for reading and writing instruction. The first setting is a professional development workshop for public school teachers of students in grades 1-6. The second setting includes two groups of students with special needs: a grade 6 class…

This paper will compare the uses of selected formal and informal assessments of English language learners (ELLs) in the Language Experience class [TRANSLANGEXP7(&8)-008] at Kimball Middle School, Illinois School District U-46, Elgin, Illinois, during school year 2007- 2008. See figure 1 (page 14) for a graphic display of these assessments…

Reviews recent innovations in language arts instruction and provides lists of materials children read and books children might make. (DD)

Reviews recent ERIC resources for creating integrated learning environments. (DD)

Children who are deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) are particularly vulnerable for later reading problems. This article describes the use of experience books, associated with the Language Experience Approach (LEA), as a motivating and linguistically appropriate literacy tool for young children who are DHH. The authors explain how remediation…

Reflecting an orientation to reading, language development, and students, this guide was drawn together to help give focus and direction to the efforts that are occurring in schools where people are studying the environment in which a child becomes a reader. An overview of the guide centers around the belief that a child will become a reader if he…

Relates personal experiences in reading and writing poetry with a group of elders in an attempt to learn something about their use of language, their life stories, and themselves. (HOD)

Publishing children's written work in the elementary classroom enables children to see themselves as creators of ideas, as producers of language, and as functioning members of the language community. This paper suggests many forms in which children's writings may be published. Step-by-step explanations and accompanying illustrations tell how to…

The purpose of this publication is to provide kindergarten teachers with the rationale, ideas, and activities necessary for implementing an experience-based language/prereading program in their classrooms. The various sections contain a rationale for using language experience activities; suggestions for classroom management of such activities; and…

When a child uses his words and his ideas in learning to read, he also assists in the normal integration of his personality. Starting with a method of language experience developed by Sylvia Ashton-Warner, the author, a reading consultant, describes a language experience-reading program which utilizes the student's own curiosity and interests. (RK)

Nineteen first grade children were randomly assigned to two experimental reading instruction conditions lasting 12 weeks. Both conditions used the language experience approach to teaching beginning language. In the experimental stage, the language experience approach was augmented by a total of six hours of individualized word-bank activities.…

Discusses the development of drama as a learning tool for children's language development. Applies James Britton's methods of language classification to the construction of functional categories of language that operate within the framework of drama and creative dramatics. (RL)