This document describes a literacy project in rural Ecuador using a modified version of Sylvia Ashton Warner's language experience approach. This method allows learners to approach written culture on their own terms by learning words important to their life, then transferring these works to sentences and stories. The approach reduces the rural learner's feelings of anxiety and inferiority when confronted with the literate dominant culture of the larger towns and cities. Circumstances in Ecuador required the modification of Ashton-Warner's approach because: (1) the project had to train group leaders to see themselves as friends and peers of learners since Ecuadorian teachers generally regard themselves as superior to students; (2) mixed-age groups require different approaches; (3) Ecuadorian groups meet less frequently and are not formally structured; and (4) learners do not attend regularly. Learners are split up into small groups, one of which works on the Ashton-Warner approach. They separate for notebook writing, then the entire group meets to read an account from the blackboard. Problems include difficulty in conducting discussion sessions and in maintaining interest after a series of words has been learned. Another problem is a lack of reading material that makes sense to the learner. A suggestion is to create a regional network for exchanging writing produced by different villages. Although results of the approach differ from village to village, the feasibility of the method and the willingness of the learners have been established. (KC)