Thursday, October 2, 2014

The Laubach Method: What It Is and How You Can Use It

The Laubach Method is a way of teaching reading and writing through image association, which can be found in the "Laubach Way To English" book series. Understanding this method may give you some ideas that you can incorporate into your tutoring sessions.


Image from Wikipedia
The Laubach method is a way of teaching a language, that grew from the work of Dr. Frank C. Laubach, who dedicated over 40 years of his life to literacy education around the world. He believed that literacy empowers people to improve and enrich their lives, and he saw poverty, injustice, and illiteracy as barriers to world peace.

Out of his noble mission came literacy programs that have helped tens of millions of people to learn to read. In 1930, he started his work in the Philippines, where he founded the "Each One Teach One" literacy program. In 1955 he founded Laubach Literacy International.

So what is the Laubach method? It is a way of teaching that focuses on learning through association rather than rote memory. While it originally began as a program for illiterate adults by teaching people how to read and write in their native language, it has been adapted to serve ESL teaching purposes as well.

Image from newreaderspress.com

The "Laubach Way to English" is a set of manuals particularly designed to teach ESL. Based on the Laubach Method, it uses association to teach vocabulary and grammar. It uses pictures to teach new words, so that students learn to connect words with meanings. This is especially useful when students have very limited English. It even describes gestures to use with students who don't yet understand English command words.

If you are interested in reading more about the Laubach method or taking a look at the materials, you can check it out online or borrow some books from the office. There are many ways to work some of Laubach's ideas into your tutoring sessions!


Happy Tutoring!



Natalie Howard

Washington University in St. Louis, Class of 2017

ENGLISH AT LARGE
Literacy and Learning for Life
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