Reading & Language

Whole language describes a literacy instructional philosophy which emphasizes that children should focus on meaning and moderates skill instruction. more...

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Overview

Whole language is a phenomenon that has been difficult to describe, particularly because many of its advocates have somewhat divergent perspectives about the core content of this instructional approach. Several strands run through most iterations of whole language:

steadfast focus on making meaning in reading and expressing meaning in writing;; constructivist approaches to knowledge creation, emphasizing students' interpretations of text and free expression of ideas in writing (often through daily journal entries).; emphasis on high-quality and culturally-diverse literature;; integrating literacy skills into other areas of the curriculum, especially math, science, and social studies;; frequent reading, (a) with students in small "guided reading" groups, (b)to students with "read alouds", and (c) by students independently;; focus on motivational aspects of literacy, emphasizing the love of books and level-appropriate student materials;; meaning-based phonics, often taught as an "embedded" part of other reading lessons; and; reduced emphasis on other skills, besides phonics, that are usually not linked directly to developing meaning, such as grammar and spelling.;

Underlying premises of whole language

The idea of "whole" language has its basis in a range of theories of learning (called epistemologies) related to "holism." Holism is based upon the belief that it is not possible to understand learning of any kind by analyzing small chunks of the learning system. Holism was very much a response to behaviorism, which emphasized that the world could be understood by experimenting with stimuli and responses. Holists considered this a reductionist perspective that did not recognize that "the whole is greater than the sum of its parts." Analyzing individual behaviors, holists argued, could never tell us how the entire human mind worked. This is--in simplified terms--the theoretical basis for the term "whole language."

Whole language posits the existence of three "cuing systems" that regulate literacy development. These cuing systems are the graphophonemic cuing system, the semantic cuing system, and the syntactic cuing system. These three systems, which overlap, help us read. Because reading is a holistic system, proponents say that pronouncing individual words can sometimes involve the use of all three systems (letter clues, meaning clues from context, and syntactical structure of the sentence)

Because of this holistic emphasis, whole language is contrasted with skill-based areas of instruction, especially phonics. Phonics is a commonly-used technique for teaching students to read. Phonics instruction tends to emphasize attention to the individual components of words, for example, the phonemes /k/, /a/, and /t/ represent the three graphemes c, a, and t. Because they de-emphasize the individual parts of learning, tending to focus on the larger context, whole language proponents do not favor some types of phonics instruction. Interestingly, some whole language advocates state that they do teach, and believe in, phonics, especially a type of phonics known as embedded phonics. In embedded phonics, letters are taught during other lessons focused on meaning and the phonics component is considered a "minilesson." Instruction in embedded phonics typically emphasizes the consonants and the short vowels, as well as letter combinations called rimes or phonograms. The use of this embedded phonics model is called a "whole-part-whole" approach because, consistent with holistic thinking, students read the text for meaning first (whole), then examine some features of the phonics system (part) and finally use their new knowledge to read stories (whole). Reading Recovery is a program that uses a whole language approach with struggling readers.

Read more at Wikipedia.org