3 Approaches to Teaching Reading

In the language-experience approach the child's own language and his environment form the basis of the reading materials and the words to be taught (Jewell & Zintz, 1980). Typically, the teaching procedures in the language experience approach include a written record, which is planned cooperatively by the pupils and the teachers. This plan is kept on a chart known as the experience chart. For example, a record of an experience that the class might have had when finding leaves on a walk they took might read as follows: We went on a walk; we found some pretty leaves; some were red; some were brown; we found yellow leaves. This experience chart would then serve as a basis on which to add vocabulary words which had not been previously learned or known.

The language-experience approach can serve a variety of purposes (Dyson, 1981). Important among these is that it provides the opportunity for continuing experiences that are in harmony with the language development trends of the children. That is, children will use words which are meaningful to them to describe their experience. The general steps to be followed by the teacher are listed below:

1) After the children have participated in an interesting and significant experience they discuss it.

2) If motivation for making a chart is not p

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reading books (Gans, 1979; Lamb & Arnold, 1980). The Basal Reading Program Since reading is a complex cognitive and perceptual task, many teachers favor a program of reading instruction which is highly controlled both in vocabulary and in other phases of reading skills. The basal program readers are such programs. They attempt to present a psychologically sound sequence for the development of needed reading skills (Lamb & Arnold, 1980; Hillerich, 1988). A basal reader series is frequently designed through grade six but some series are designed for junior high. Most basal readers series contain several controls, one of the most important being vocabulary. The words selected are determined in part by earlier studies of word lists compiled to show the frequency of use of words on various reading levels. The type and number of new words presented per page are regulated, as well as the repetition of words on the pages on which they first occur and then on later pages. In readers beyond the beginning stage, the control of the vocabulary continues, through it becomes decreasingly rigid. While in pre-basal books the aim of most writers is to select only words that are already in the learner's speaking and listening vocabular
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