
Full Answer
What is the whole language approach?
Also known as balanced literacy, the whole language approach is an educational philosophy that teaches children to read by using strategies that show how language is a system of parts that work together to create meaning.
What is the language experience approach?
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.
What is a planned language approach?
A planned language approach (PLA) is a comprehensive, systemic, research- based way for Head Start, Early Head Start, and child care programs to ensure ideal language and literacy services for children who speak only English and for those who are dual language learners (DLLs).
What is the whole language approach in early childhood education?
In addition, the whole language approach encourages students to use reading and writing for everyday purposes, such as making a list or leaving a note, rather than just to decode words and text. 2 Some scholars have suggested that the whole language approach has disadvantages for early readers.

What is the meaning of language approach?
Also known as balanced literacy, the whole language approach is an educational philosophy that teaches children to read by using strategies that show how language is a system of parts that work together to create meaning.
What are approaches in language teaching?
10 Tried, Tested and Trusted Language Teaching ApproachesGrammar-translation Approach. ... Direct Approach. ... Reading Approach. ... Audiolingual Approach. ... Communicative Approach. ... The Silent Way. ... Community Language Learning. ... Functional-notional Approach.More items...•
What is the purpose of the language experience approach?
The language experience approach (LEA) is a whole language approach that promotes reading and writing through the use of personal experiences and oral language. It can be used in tutorial or classroom settings with homogeneous or heterogeneous groups of learners.
What is an example of whole language approach?
Some examples are bus schedules, recipes, and news reports (Brockman, 1994). It is important to remember that whole language is an approach to learning where the goal is for learners to bring meaning to the text. Whole language advocates believe that this focus on meaning is primary in language learning.
Which language teaching approach is the best?
1. Communicative language teaching (CLT) This approach is probably now the most popular teaching model for English language teaching globally. In part because it aims to put students in a variety of real-life situations, so that they can learn how to use their language skills to communicate in the real world.
How many approaches are there in language teaching?
How many approaches are there in language learning? Throughout history, there have been just over 30 popular approaches in language learning. However, there are around 10 that are most widely known including task-based learning, communicative approach, grammar-translation and the audio-lingual approach.
What is the whole language approach to teaching reading?
The whole language approach to reading is a philosophy that stresses the importance of children thinking about their thinking, or being metacognitive. The whole language approach (WLA) focuses on children making sense of skills used in reading and writing, as opposed to just memorizing letter sounds and symbols.
What are the language experience approach steps?
The following sections describe the steps of an Language Experience Approach lesson.STEP #1: A Shared Experience. ... STEP #2: Creating the Text. ... STEP #3: Read & Revise. ... STEP #4: Read and Reread. ... STEP #5: Extension.
What are the characteristics of whole language approach?
Whole language is an approach to reading that emphasizes functional, real purposes for writing and reading. It is a belief system that children learn language when it is nteresting, and relevant. Whole language incorporates reading, writing, listening, and speaking in a blended format into the curriculum.
What are the components of whole language approach?
The whole language approach (WLA) is a philosophy of education regarding how language, literacy, and teaching are viewed. It is based on all aspects of language learning: reading, listening, speaking, and writing.
What are the advantages of whole language approach?
The advantages of whole language are it exposes children to literature and gives them confidence as a reader and writer. The disadvantages of whole language are it does not teach the rules of the English language. The components of phonics are phonemic awareness and sound-symbol relationships.
How do you teach the whole language approach?
The whole language approach does not have a packaged curriculum or precise instructional sequence. It begins with a mindset that understands learni...
What is the whole language approach?
The whole language is best described as a mindset about how language, literacy, and teaching are viewed. At its foundation is the assertion that la...
What is the difference between phonics and whole language?
They key difference between phonics instruction and the whole language approach is the focus in the early stages of literacy: phonics stresses lett...
What is a PLA program?
A PLA can be used in any type of early childhood program, including: Head Start, Early Head Start, and Migrant and Seasonal Head Start. Child care programs , including center-based, family child care, and public pre-K programs. Home visiting programs.
Do children learn more than one language?
All children are language learners, and some children are learning more than one language. Children who are learning English as an additional language are the fastest growing population in the country. It's essential that program staff can meet their unique language needs.
What does "whole language" mean?
What does it mean actually? How different is it from teaching to read using explicit phonics? Answer: ‘Whole language’ is an educational philosophy of which the ‘whole-language’ approach stems from a school of thought that children, in the learning of a language, is able to assimilate and understand the dichotomy of the language make-up ...
Is language philosophy complex?
All said, the whole language philosophy is complex to describe as it is indicted to areas of sociology, psychology, linguistics etc . There are also critics to the approach as some experts in this area of academic learning feels that there is a limited body of scientific research.
Is learning a language through phonics secondary?
Whole language practioneers practice the belief in their teachings that learning a language needs to be contextualised and experiential. The difficulty level is secondary to a certain extent. This is quite unlike the learning of language through phonics.
What is whole language approach?
Also known as balanced literacy, the whole language approach is an educational philosophy that teaches children to read by using strategies that show how language is a system of parts that work together to create meaning. While it may sound as if this method discounts phonics, the use of phonemic awareness (or sub-lexical reading) ...
Is there a single reading method that will work better for children?
The organization has also maintained that no single reading method will best suit a particular child. In other words, some reading methods will work better for some children more than others.
Is whole language bad for early readers?
Some scholars have suggested that the whole language approach has disadvantages for early readers. Specifically, they have suggested that students who are taught to read using the whole language approach may have difficulty learning to spell if they do not receive phonics instruction as well.
What is a language 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.
How does language experience help children?
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, ...
Why is it important to read aloud?
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 ...
What is a simple sentence?
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.
What is the role of a teacher in language?
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.
Who advocated the importance of the language experience approach in “Write me a sign”?
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.
Is language experience beneficial?
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. Previous Reciprocal teaching.
How does the Language Experience Approach work?
The Language Experience Approach emphasises language learning through carefully scaffolded and reinforced language in context and through activity.
How does the image help teachers explain sentence structure?
It helps teachers explain sentence structure as the image (s) can help the teacher unpack the logical structure of the sentence. It effectively scaffolds a written text by using images to sequence a text, including personal narrative, procedures, explanations and more.

Summary
- Also known as balanced literacy, the whole language approach is an educational philosophy that teaches children to read by using strategies that show how language is a system of parts that work together to create meaning. While it may sound as if the whole language method discounts phonics as a way to teach reading, the use of phonemic awareness (o...
Philosophy
- The whole language philosophy also teaches students to recognize core words as a single word instead of having them sound out all words phonetically. In a nutshell, this approach uses literature as a teaching tool and aims to integrate literacy within all parts of the curriculum (including science, math and social studies). In addition, the whole language approach encourag…
Criticism
- Some scholars have suggested that the whole language approach has disadvantages for early readers. Specifically, they have suggested that students who are taught to read using the whole language approach may have difficulty learning to spell if they do not receive phonics instruction as well.
International
- The International Reading Association has supported the inclusion of phonics in the whole language approach to literacy.
Quotes
- \"The teaching of phonics is an important aspect of beginning reading instruction,\" the IRA stated in \"The Role of Phonics in Reading Instruction\" advisory. \"...Phonics instruction, to be effective in promoting independence in reading, must be embedded in the context of a total reading/language arts program.\"
Prevention
- If your child has been exposed to various literacy approaches and continues to struggle to read, speak to a school faculty member or your child's pediatrician about the possibility that your child may have a learning disability in reading. All children are different and learn to read at their own pace. So, just because your child isn't as skillful of a reader as his classmates or his siblings wer…