Jenni Langan, the Specialist Literacy Educator and Consultant behind Alfabetico, trained as a primary school teacher (BEd), and also completed a BA, majoring in History and Sociology, to combine her fascination of humanity and life’s big questions.
During her years of primary school teaching, Jenni began to search for ways to further support students who were experiencing learning difficulties, particularly with reading, spelling and writing.
Finding that a significant number of her students were confused by standard programs that taught more ‘exceptions’ than ‘reliable, linguistically sound understandings’ of the English language, Jenni began a personal quest to research methods to help ALL students thrive.
Her personal and professional development journey initially saw her taking on additional post-graduate studies in the field of dyslexia. After finding that many dyslexia interventions and programs were not grounded in evidence-based practice, Jenni continued her search for answers in the field of Orthographic Linguistics.
It has been through the field of Linguistics that Jenni has connected with an international community of like-minded educators who are equally passionate about studying the structures of the English writing system (orthography), using rigorous methods of scientific inquiry.
Jenni’s friendly approach, and ability to break concepts down to a developmentally-appropriate level, has made her literacy therapy practice, Alfabetico, a highly regarded small business that has thrived for nearly a decade. As a result of her students making steady improvement and progress in their literacy skills (often for the first time in many years) Jenni continues to receive many student referrals from paediatricians, educational psychologists, school teachers, and word-of-mouth recommendations from current and former clients.
Jenni is also a passionate and knowledgeable speaker on the topic of English Orthography (the writing system), and would be happy to assist your school or organisation in learning more about the regular structures of English; for both writing and reading. Her workshops are thought-provoking, interactive and enlightening. Teachers, particularly, have often been surprised by what they learn about the English writing system in these sessions, and continue to use the structures that Jenni embeds in her teaching practice, to further their own orthographic understanding, and teaching practice. With an inquiry-based model, even the most apprehensive teacher can thrive with the ‘Guide on the Side’, rather than ‘Sage on the Stage’ approach to finding out what they don’t already know about English Orthography.
Jenni is extremely passionate about the teaching and learning process, and loves building students’ (and teachers’): confidence, skills and knowledge of Literacy to highlight their untapped learning (and teaching) potential.
When she takes a break from studying the structures of English language, Jenni loves to: have fun with family and friends, swim, climb mountains, listen to podcasts, and read fiction and non-fictions texts on a wide-range of topics. Jenni is also an avid seamstress and enjoys sewing her own handmade wardrobe. Find more information on Jenni’s sewing pursuits here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-13/hand-sewn-clothing-no-longer-daggy/9311144
Engage with Alfabetico to improve your knowledge of all things Literacy related!