Whole language is an approach to teaching reading, prominent from the 1970s through the 1990s, holding that children acquire literacy most naturally through meaningful exposure to whole, authentic texts, stories and their own writing, with letter-sound relationships learned incidentally in context rather than through direct, sequenced phonics instruction. It became the losing side of the reading wars this atlas already records as its own Reading Wars policy entry, after cognitive-science research on decoding shifted mainstream consensus toward explicit phonics instruction.
Facts
Partially Debunked
Most Effective ForTeaching literacy in English to young children 1 Developed for teaching literacy in English to young children, but the source calls it a discredited philosophy Central QuestionDoes learning to read come as naturally as learning to speak? 1 Connections
Associated With
Whole Language's own live entity-description: it became the losing side of the reading wars this atlas already records as its own Reading Wars policy entry.
Policies Informed
Balanced Literacy's own live entity-description: combines elements of phonics instruction with the whole-language emphasis on authentic texts and student choice.
Sources
1. Wikipedia: Whole language
Overview section, premise
It is based on the premise that learning to read English comes naturally to humans, especially young children, in the same way that learning to speak develops naturally.
Overview section, description
Whole language is a discredited philosophy of reading and an educational method originally developed for teaching literacy in English to young children.
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