The language experience approach (LEA) has been used successfully with students who are beginning to read in English as a second language. In an LEA lesson the teacher can elicit students' comments on a wordless picture book, transcribe students' sentences, read the resultant story aloud (or have the class read it), and have the story copied. Teachers should transcribe exactly what students dictate for three reasons: the core of LEA is using the beginning reader's language as the base on which to build reading materials, the focus of the lesson should be on content rather than on surface forms, and exact transcriptions provide a record of progress as well as data for further lesson planning. The LEA materials may be used as the basis for many later rereading activities. Teachers can organize their classes so that they teach LEA lessons to small groups of students, or they can let students act as their own scribes, providing help with expression of ideas and with spelling as needed. Among LEA "starters" that can be used in addition to wordless picture books, some of which may be made by students, are wordless comic books and films; dramatics activities, role-playing activities, and guessing games, in which students' dialogue or questions are transcribed; stories read aloud to students; and classroom experiences. (GT)