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    The Language Experience Approach

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    This document provides information about the language experience approach, which integrates speaking, listening, reading and writing through developing written texts based on students' first-hand experiences. It discusses the key steps of the approach, including capturing spoken language, creating a text, and reading the text. Examples of how the approach can be implemented in a foundation classroom are also provided.

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    The Language Experience Approach

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    This document provides information about the language experience approach, which integrates speaking, listening, reading and writing through developing written texts based on students' first-hand experiences. It discusses the key steps of the approach, including capturing spoken language, creating a text, and reading the text. Examples of how the approach can be implemented in a foundation classroom are also provided.

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    This document provides information about the language experience approach, which integrates speaking, listening, reading and writing through developing written texts based on students' first-hand experiences. It discusses the key steps of the approach, including capturing spoken language, creating a text, and reading the text. Examples of how the approach can be implemented in a foundation classroom are also provided.

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    26 views8 pages

    The Language Experience Approach

    Uploaded by

    nileriver970
    This document provides information about the language experience approach, which integrates speaking, listening, reading and writing through developing written texts based on students' first-hand experiences. It discusses the key steps of the approach, including capturing spoken language, creating a text, and reading the text. Examples of how the approach can be implemented in a foundation classroom are also provided.

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    Home For schools Teaching materials and methods Literacy and English
    Literacy Teaching Toolkit

    Literacy Teaching Toolkit

    The language experience approach


    The language experience approach integrates speaking and listening, reading and writing through the
    development of a written text based on first hand experiences.

    Through scaffolded talk, the teacher supports students to document experiences and ideas, using familiar
    and expanded vocabulary, modelling ways in which their thoughts and words can be written down and
    later read.

    On this page
    Procedure for the language experience approach
    Examples of the language experience approach in a foundation class
    Theory to practice
    References

    Procedure for the language experience approach


    The experience
    Typically, the language experience approach involves a shared experience such as everyday happenings,
    common school experiences, a classroom event or hands-on activity, excursions but can also include
    students’ personal experiences or ideas.

    Spoken language
    The teacher’s role in language experience is to support the student to recreate the experience orally as they:

    capitalise on students’ interest and experiences


    prompt the students to reflect on the experiences
    ask questions to elicit details about the experience through more explicit language
    help students to rehearse the ideas they will be writing about.

    Creating the text


    The text might be written by the teacher or by the student. As the writer, the teacher acts as a model,
    demonstrating how thought and words can be represented in writing as students dictate their ideas.
    Individual children might dictate a sentence, or a longer text might be written.

    Alternatively, students will write their own texts. Here, the teacher can guide students’ writing, encouraging
    them to understand that what they think can be said, and what they say can be written down by them or
    others (Hill, 2012).

    In the writing that occurs as part of the language experience approach, it can be helpful to remind the
    children that the writing produced will provide information for those who did not directly share the
    experience.

    In that way, differences between spoken language and written language can be emphasised.

    “How can we put that in writing for someone that wasn’t there?” is a question that might support children to
    create more elaborate, extended text.

    As the texts written through the language experience approach reflect first hand experiences, the formats
    will vary – for example, charts, labels, captions, lists or genres such as recounts, procedures, information
    reports.

    Drawing either before or after writing will often complement the written text. In her research into
    connections between drawing and writing, Mackenzie (2011) found that when emergent writers see drawing
    and writing as a unified meaning making system, more complex texts are created.

    Reading
    What is written can now be read. As the language experience texts are relevant to the students, the
    opportunity to read them aloud creates a positive experience and reinforces the reciprocity between
    reading and writing.

    Texts that the students have produced based on their experiences, using familiar language make good early
    reading material which can be read chorally or individually.

    Examples of the language experience approach in a


    foundation class
    The following examples show how one Foundation teacher provided varied opportunities for her students to
    create texts using the language experience approach where:

    following discussion, writing about different topics and experiences is captured which can later be
    read about (for example, an excursion to the zoo, a visit by the fireman, an investigation of nocturnal
    animals)
    simple sentences using a repetitive structure are written for the students to illustrate and copy,
    supporting both reading and writing
    students are encouraged to write their own ideas, using compound or complex sentences and
    expanded noun groups
    the writing includes the labelling of a diagram.

    Example 1 – The fireman


    Example 2 – Nocturnal animals
    Example 3 – An excursion to the zoo
    Example 4 - A shared experience
    For more examples, see: Language experience unit of work for a foundation class

    For an example of the language experience approach for EAL/D students, see: Language experience unit for
    EAL/D students

    Theory to practice
    Lorraine Wilson advocated the importance of the language experience approach in ‘Write me a Sign’,
    published in 1979. A key message from this publication is that language is central to learning in all areas of
    the curriculum. Wilson also acknowledges the need for children to read published texts which open up
    possibilities of engaging with other people’s language and ideas as they become more experienced readers
    and writers.

    Understanding the difference between spoken and written language is critical in the primary years of
    schooling (Christie, 2013). Hill (2012) states that language experience enables young literacy learners in
    particular to understand the difference between spoken and written language.

    Importantly, children’s language is extended through interactions with an ‘expert other’, that is, the teacher.
    Through the expansion and extension of oral language based around experiences, students are supported
    to write about these experiences. These student-generated written texts then become texts the students
    read allowing the experience to be revisited.

    While the language experiences approach benefits many kinds of learners, it is particularly beneficial for for
    English as an Additional Language or Dialect students.
    For more information on the language experience approach and EAL/D students, see: Language experience
    approach and EAL/D students

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    References
    Christie, F. (2013). Writing development as a necessary dimension of language and literacy education .

    Hill, S. (2012). Developing early literacy: Assessment and teaching (2nd ed.). South Yarra, Vic: Eleanor Curtain.

    Mackenzie, N. (2011). From drawing to writing: What happens when you shift teaching priorities in the first
    months of school? Australian Journal of Language and literacy, 34 (3), 322-340.

    Wilson, L. (1979). Write me a sign. Melbourne: Thomas Nelson Australia.

    Last Update: 15 January 2024 Back to top

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    Deleting and manipulating sounds in words
    Level 2: Teaching phonological awareness and phonics in the supported reading phase of the
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    Level 2: An integrated language unit of work teaching rhyme and spelling patterns
    Oral language activities to develop phonological awareness and phonics knowledge.
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    Level 2: An integrated unit of work to teach the suffix ‘ing’
    Guidance on commercial phonics programs
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