Language+Experience+Approach

** ** *__DEFINITION:__ ** The Language Experience Approach is a whole language approach that promotes reading and writing through the use of personal and oral language. The major purpose of this approach is “Anything that can be said can be written and anything that can be written can be read or said.” The LEA builds on the learner’s own language and knowledge and is an effective way to encourage self-expression and create connections between written and oral language. For example, beginning literacy readers will relate their experience to their teacher, who writes down what the students are saying, and uses this writing as a basis for other reading and writing activities. ** *__VALUE and/or CHALLENGES:__ ** Values: The four communication skills-speaking, listening, reading, and writing-are all integrated. The difficulty of the grammar and vocabulary are determined by the learners own language use. Challenges: Supporters of Phonics criticize this theory because they feel can cause reading problems. They feel that one needs to learn the name and sounds of letters in order to begin to read. ** *__MAJOR THEORISTS and/or RESEARCHER:__  ** John Dewey, Denise Nessel, Carol N. Dixon, and Don Holdaway, ** *__MY EVALUATION:__  ** Considering that this approach was developed originally for native English speakers, I feel that this approach allows learning and teaching to become creative and personalized for the student. The teacher is using the students own words and creating activities for them that become meaningful and long lasting. I feel that this is a great approach to young learners of all languages that promotes how they can integrate the four communication skills. ** *__LESSON PLAN EXAMPLE:__  ** http://www.uiowa.edu/~amreads/teaching_resources/phonics/languageexperience.html
 * Language Experience Approach (LEA)