Language arts is a term used in American elementary and secondary education to refer to training in reading, writing, and speaking, as distinguished from training in literary appreciation and scholarship. The term is also used in many colleges. Language arts, also referred to as “programs in communication,” freely utilizes all types of knowledge, especially the social sciences and psychology, in the study of language and literature.
Beyond the elementary stages of reading, writing, and speaking, language arts includes a variety of topics: phonetics (for the improvement of pronunciation), remedial reading, linguistics, semantics (for the improvement of comprehension), creative writing, and bibliotherapy (the study of the kinds of reading that promote emotional growth and health). Language arts also includes the following studies: literature as a source of psychological and social insights, rather than exclusively as an art; the effects of mass communication; and the relations between language and culture.
The difference between the traditional approach to literature and the language arts approach may be roughly described as that between the consumer viewpoint and the producer viewpoint. The consumer viewpoint is learning to enjoy literature, while that of the producer is learning to use language skills and understand their operation.
