Topic: Language Experience for Deaf Children

Purpose of this blog: Review of interesting articles and ideas in past English education journals, K-12.

10-second preview: Deaf children can learn to communicate in writing through language experience. Their maturity in writing will grow.

Title: “The Language Experience Approach to Reading Instruction for Deaf and Hearing Impaired Children.” RG Stauffer. Reading Teacher (October 1979), 21-24.

Summary: When the students as a group tell a story aloud to be recorded by the teacher, the teacher fills in the missing connectives that they leave out. When the students read back the story, they also read back the “fillers.” This way they develop the ability to speak and read like normal people.

Comment: I don’t know if language experience is still popular in early education, but it is a useful tool. It helps students recognize words in their speaking and listening vocabulary as they are recorded by the teacher on chart paper. That’s how children learn to read—they recognize words in their speaking and listening vocabulary when they see them in print.

And that’s how language experience works. The children dictate a story on a topic. The teacher records it for the children to see—on chart paper or white or black boards—and then the children read it back. A lot of information on language experience can be found by typing “language experience” into Google or Bing. RayS.