Language Experience Approach

I was introduced to a technique yesterday called “The language experience approach”. This technique is specifically used to teach English as a second language to students who are limited in their English proficiency. I’m sure that all of us at one time or another has encountered this technique… you do something or experience something and then you reflect upon the experience in some kind of language based way. Of course this is very general but… the language experience approach specifically uses the following steps:
presentation of experience
recording of student generated sentences, with grammatical and spelling corrections
choral reading of sentences as a group
individual reading of a sentence in a group setting
teaching of specific aspects in relation to the experience, ie. Identifying phonemes, words, spellings etc.
students copy down the story
and the use of the story in various teaching aspects for 2 to 3 days only
I think it’s a general and powerful method not only for ESL learners but for learners of all kinds in all curricula. I look forward to really using it one day.

Q