The language experience approach is a reading methodoloy that is highly organized, highly structured, and very systematic, but that allows teachers to teach without texts. It is a multiple, variegated set of activities designed to serve one purpose, namely, the instructional use of pupil's own language. As such, there are five interrelated aspects of the language experience approach that weave in and out of daily classroom practice. The first is the alphabet, whose usefulness lies in its letter names. Children proceed from letter names to letter sounds, especially with vowels. The second aspect, writing, includes "invented spelling," a spelling that resembles phonetic spelling but has more profound origins. The breakdown of the rote recital of the alphabet into its component letters allows words to be spelled on a letter name basis that should lead, in later grades, into formal, accurate, and correct spelling. Key vocabulary is the third aspect. It is a highly structured process in which the teacher elicits a personal word from the student in a specified, organized way. The fourth aspect,though not necessarily in this order, is that of the experience chart. From ideas presented by the students, the teacher writes on the chalkboard or easel the transmogrified ideas, repeating each word as it is written. The final aspect, the use of trade or library books, relates both to the language experience approach and the self-selection or individualized reading approach and involves children in reading books that they choose and like and reporting their reactions to the teacher. (HOD)