All his life John had worked long hours on the family farm. In recent years, feeling there was no future in this for him, he had become desperate to find other work. The local authority advertised jobs he could do, but the application forms ran to seven pages. With Sarah, the teacher of the basic skills class he attended, John worked out what he might say in answer to their questions (like, why do you think you should be considered for this post?). She took notes of what he said and read them back to him. They discussed improvements. She amended her notes and again checked them with him. When John was satisfied, she made a fair copy for him to use in completing the form.

This is an example of the teaching approach used in adult literacy education known as language experience. It entails the teacher acting as a scribe to create a text in the student's words; free from concerns about their spelling, punctuation or handwriting, the student can concentrate on the process of composition. The method was promoted in the early years of adult literacy tutor training (for example, Roberts, 1976, pp. 20-21) and persisted to the early 1990s (Gittins, 1993, pp. 29-35).

Yet in the adult literacy core curriculum which now drives teaching and learning in basic skills classes, language experience appears just twice and in both cases the entry is misleading. Here it is in the glossary of terms at the back:

language experience - an approach to learning that uses the learner's own words to provide the basis for language work. Typically, a teacher adopting a language experience approach will produce a written version of a 'spoken text' supplied by the learner, so that there is a written text with which the learner is familiar, to be used for further work in reading and writing. (BSA, 2001, pp. 139)

This is misleading. Language experience entails more than a teacher 'producing' a version of a student's speech. Properly undertaken, it is a collaborative activity. (John and Sarah produced the text together following discussion, reading, checking, revision and reading again.)

Its second appearance is in the body of the curriculum, where it appears only as a strategy for developing reading. At Entry level 1, the learner is expected to be able to "read their own composition, which someone else has written down". But even here, there is confusion. A suggested teaching strategy says, "Texts can be recorded on tape by the learner for transcription, or dictated to the teacher." (ibid, pp. 56 and 57)

But this is more than a strategy for developing reading; it is writing in action - "their own composition". (Two practical issues: transcribing a taped interview is hardly an option, given the other demands of teaching; and "dictating" is not how it works. Often enough, no writing happens at all until some time has been spent on discovering the subject which seems best to suit the purpose. For examples and further discussion of these issues see Mace, 2002, pp. 178-205.)

Some 10 years ago, Wendy Moss was able to report from her research that "the language experience approach is commonly used in adult literacy teaching in Britain" (Moss, 1995, pp. 146). Today, it's not so clear. But in a workshop at this year's Research and Practice in Adult Literacy (RaPAL) conference in July, Jill Ross and I hope to find out. Our concern is that in the present times of targets and skills assessment, the empowerment and opportunity for students to develop as writers which language experience offers has been erased.

We will be asking: how might this apparently very individual work be of value as a group activity? In what ways can it be of use with students at all levels, not just E1, working towards independent writing? And how much of it might be actually going on, under another name? If you have any answers you would be willing to share with us, we would be glad to hear from you. Better still, join us at the conference.

References

Basic Skills Agency (2001) The adult literacy core curriculum. London: BSA.
R. Gittins (1993) An introduction to literacy teaching. London: ALBSU.
J. Mace (2002) The give and take of writing: scribes, literacy and everyday life. Leicester: NIACE.
W. Moss (1995) Controlling or empowering? Writing through a scribe in adult basic education, in J. Mace (ed.) Literacy, language and community publishing. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
J. Roberts (1976) Harrap's handbook for literacy tutors. London: Harrap.

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