Language Experience Approach (LEA)

Watch this video with an example of LEA in action.

Untitled: Jan 29, 2021 8:43 AM.webm

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The language experience approach (LEA) is a whole language approach that promotes reading and writing through the use of personal experiences and oral language. It can be used in classroom settings or in a tutoring situation to help students process an experience. It helps English learners improve their language, process information, and develop further understanding of material. Beginning and intermediate English learners relate their experiences to a teacher or paraprofessional who transcribes them. Then students read the transcriptions, write about them, modify them, and develop them. They can also be used as study guides to help them recall activities in class. This approach can be especially useful with lab experiments, field trips, and experiences within a group.


Steps to the Language Experience Approach

STEPS OF THE LANGUAGE EXPERIENCE APPROACH

STEP 1: A Shared Experience

The LEA process begins with something the class does together, such a a field trip, an experiment, or some other hands-on activity. If this is not possible, a sequence of pictures (that tell a story) can be used.

STEP 2: Creating the Text

Next, the teacher and students, as a group, verbally recreate the shared experience. Students take turns volunteering information, as in a large-group discussion. The teacher transcribes the students' words on the board, on an overhead projector, or on a large sheet of paper. This is done in an organized way to create the text.

STEP 3: Read and Revise

The final story can be read in a choral or echo style, or both. Students can also read in small groups or pairs, then individually.

"Understanding the Language Experience Approach" https://k12teacherstaffdevelopment.com/tlb/understanding-the-language-experience-approach-lea/

Extending the Experience

With beginning learners, teachers or paraprofessionals can

  • have students copy the story themselves;

  • have students match words with pictures or definitions;

  • delete every nth word (fourth, fifth, sixth, etc.) to create a cloze exercise. Have the students fill in the blanks either with or without the assistance of a word bank, depending on their literacy level;

  • select words from the story for vocabulary, spelling, or sound-symbol correspondence activities;

  • use the texts to review a grammar point, such as sequence of tenses, word order, or pronoun referents;

  • dictate the story for learners to write;

  • write the sentences in scrambled order and have students rewrite them, restoring the correct sequence;

  • scramble key words and have students unscramble them.

More advanced learners can

  • use the group-produced text as the basis for individually written texts about the same topic, about a similar experience, or as a critique of the experience. then they might read each others' texts;

  • revise and edit the texts and prepare them for publication;

  • read other texts related to the topic;

  • generate comprehension questions for classmates to answer;

  • write other types of texts--songs, poems, letters, or directions for how to do something.

"The Language Experience Approach and Adult Learners," http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/LEA.html

Further Reading on the Language Experience Approach