This article highlights research exploring the benefits of small-group storytelling as a way to promote rich language in early childhood classrooms. Using the storytelling of children from a preschool classroom serving lower SES children, the author explores the collaborative affordances of story circles. Results show that small-group storytelling…

Six conceptions prevail about the language experience approach (LEA) although research and practical experience have proven them false. (1) "LEA does not teach basic skills." If basic skills are defined as communication competence, LEA teaches basic communication skills as well as the mechanics of communication. (2) "A language experience…

Discusses the effect of previous knowledge on reading comprehension. Suggests reading instruction methods that evoke the readers' experiences, or schemata, relevant to the material. (HTH)

A kindergarten teacher recounts her classroom experience introducing children to reading via the whole language approach, which is based on the belief that children learn to read and write naturally by listening, watching, speaking, and writing. Classroom photographs and samples of student work illustrate the article. (DB)

The whole-language learning approach is applied to the teaching of writing skills to children with disabilities. Oral storytelling is the basis for an eight-step procedure which progresses from hearing a storyteller through writing a class story and on to publishing and storytelling. (DB)

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…

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…

Language activities based on connectivity, or social links between people and their experiences, can create a sense of history and belonging in a classroom community and can establish the foundation for educational curriculum. Levels of connectivity and their impact on educational curriculum are examined through a classroom example of…

Rather than concentrate on ritual language and stock phrases, second-language teachers should utilize the language experience approach to help children develop more natural communication in active learning situations, using realistic settings and materials. (six references) (MDM)

This article explores ways to enhance oral discussions to increase the written language abilities of students with learning disabilities. It discusses oral and written language differences, and offers specific strategies for improving oral narrative skills within the Language Experience Approach (LEA), such as using semantic maps and teaching…

Discusses the Language Experience Approach and process writing, two methods which approach reading and writing as active processes, stressing communication and meaning. Asserts that these methods are compatible and shows how they can be combined and incorporated into kindergarten and primary level classes. (MM)

The psychological and linguistic rationales for an integrative approach to teaching reading and language that is based on the language experience and shared book approaches are presented, and the necessary changes in the Singapore educational system are outlined. Because the program is an integrated language arts approach, reading instruction time…

Certain settings and activities can be initiated in the classroom to encourage reluctant writers to write. The classroom environment should be structured so that writing efforts produce positive reinforcement. Sharing ideas with peers or the teacher prior to writing will enable students to feel that their ideas are worthwhile. Children can be…

Teaching techniques, lessons, and activities for teaching English as a second language (ESL) in grades K through 12 are suggested. Cross-cultural suggestions, supportive ethno-pedagogical methods, and ideas for implementing the language experience approach to reading are provided within the framework of an activity-based program and an…

If communicative competence is defined by and organized around culturally-framed and linguistically-patterned communicative plans and goals and the linguistic resources of interactive practices, then interaction in the classroom is employed to create social engagement in regularly occurring interactive practices where communicative learning can be…