Page 91 - Teaching English at Primary Level: From Theory into the Classroom

Literacy Approaches

Classroom Insight: Language Experience Approach in Practice
Nataša develops her pupils’ literacy skills in about the structure of the summary while
English in cooperation with the class teacher writing a summary of the story, first on a
of her pupils. She follows the pupils’ develop- poster together as a whole-class and later
ment in their L1 literacy skills and adapts the on in pairs or individually in higher grades
activities, the length and types of the texts on the basis of the language experience ap-
and the style of handwriting (first block let- proach. Nataša uses strategies and tech-
ters, later cursive) to their L1 level in her En- niques similar to the ones used by their L1
glish lessons. She has to work closely with teacher when introducing a story in English,
the L1 teacher and plan her lessons accord- so her pupils are used to the sequence of ac-
ing to the children’s cognitive level. For exam- tivities and recognize the genres and struc-
ple, the L1 teacher works on a text or a story tures of the story in English, too. Sometimes
in their L1 class. After presenting the text or she introduces the same story in English
the story to the class, she discusses the genre, which was already discussed in Slovenian,
topic and content with the pupils. The pupils while other times she uses a different story,
then do reading comprehension tasks related but with similar activities. Her step-by-step
to the story, role plays, etc. and work on the approach helps pupils to be more fluent in
story in a variety of ways. They usually talk the written language.

There are many activities that can be used in developing YLs’ phonemic
awareness, such as finding rhyming words, searching for words with the
same sounds or creating rhymes or stories with a certain sound. The teacher
can pay special attention to the sounds that students struggle with (e.g. /ð/,
/θ/ or the difference between long and short /i/). As this is a very popular
approach in teaching L1 reading, many activities and phonics books can be
found on the internet as well.

Whole-Word Approach
The whole-word approach teaches literacy at the word level. It is based on
top-down processing skills. It does not involve decoding letters or sound-
ing out words but learning to read the words as a whole by heart. In us-
ing this method, teachers often make use of flashcards with single words on
them. Learners start with simple familiar words and when they have mas-
tered them, move gradually to more difficult ones. The words should be
meaningful to the children and connected to their background knowledge.
The whole-word approach emphasises high exposure to words in different
context, so that children can memorize their pronunciation.
Another term for the whole-word approach is ‘sight reading’ or learning
to read ‘sight words.’ These are words in English that cannot be sounded out
and the best way to learn them is to memorize them. In this way, learners will
be able to read them automatically or ‘at sight.’ The ‘sight words’ are usually

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