Using the Language Experience Approach with English Language Learners: Strategies for Engaging Students and Developing Literacy

‘Nessel and Dixon show teachers how to effectively support English language development by using the Language Experience Approach’ - David E. Freeman and Yvonne S. Freeman, Professors of Literacy, ESL, and Bilingual Education, The University of Texas at Brownsville. ‘Provides the tools teachers need to use this natural way of helping English Language Learners. The Language Experience Approach makes language and language arts accessible to the students in need of basic skills’ - Roberta E. Dorr, Associate Professor of Education, Trinity University, WA. Support ELLs while meeting the goals of your literacy curriculum! English Language Learners (ELLs) enter the classroom with different levels of proficiency and confidence in English. The Language Experience Approach offers Ku12 teachers an instructional framework and classroom strategies for meeting students at their level and helping them use their strengths as speakers and listeners to build reading and writing skills. Research-based and used successfully in practice, this method actively engages students by allowing them to construct their own texts and bring their personal experiences into the learning process. The authors: offer detailed, step-by-step directions for using the Language Experience Approach in English language instruction; include examples of the kinds of texts that are generated by ELL students; and, describe activities which teachers can use with those texts to refine and extend learners’ literacy skills. Appropriate for teaching students at varying levels of English proficiency, Using the Language Experience Approach With English Language Learners is a valuable reference for teachers, literacy coaches, and reading specialists.