The following article was grabbed from
http://www.theriver.com/public/tucs...rents_edu_forum/whole_language.html
and the web site is maintained by Arizona Parents for Traditional Education
(In requesting permission to repost this article, I was informed that it was 
written by an educator
in New York and that it was placed in the public domain - no author's name 
was 
given.)
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What is Whole Language?
Civilization, as we know it today, began around 3000 BC when the Sumerians
built city-states in the fertile crescent of Mesopotamia. The key invention
that allowed this advance was the development of a writing system. The
first system was ideographic -- a symbol or group of symbols represented
a specific word or short word-phrase. This was soon recognized to be 
impractical
and was abandoned within a few hundred years in favor of a system in which
each symbol represented a phonetic sound in the spoken language. The alphabet
we use today was created by the Phoenicians around 1600 BC. Like the Sumerian
alphabet, it was phonetic, consisting of 22 consonants and no vowels. The
Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet and modified it by adding vowels
between the consonants. In turn, the Greek alphabet was adapted by the
Romans to produce the Latin alphabet. Modern English and most European
languages are based on Latin and the alphabet that it used.
In linguistics study, the smallest unit of speech that distinguishes
one word element from another in a language is called a phoneme. Every
language consists of a specific group of phonemes. English is made up of
only 44 distinct sounds; 25 of which are consonant sounds and 19 vowel
sounds. In all alphabetic languages, the emphasis in teaching reading has
been on correlating the written print to the phonetic sounds used in the
spoken language. For centuries, the method used to teach reading and writing
did not vary much. Children were taught the alphabet, then simple short
syllables and then words, going from the simple to the more complex. Once
their decoding skills had developed to a reasonable level, they were 
introduced
to short stories, poems and children's literature. They were expected to
use their phonetic decoding skills whenever they encountered a new word.
Practice was essential to making the decoding process automatic and almost
unconscious. This was the process applied in the famous "McGuffey
Readers" used up until the first quarter of the 20th century.
It would seem that if a method is working well, it would continue to
be used and constantly improved. However, this has not been the case. Whole
language is the latest reincarnation of a method that arose in the early
days of American history and then gained dominance in the mid 1920's. 
Originally
it was called the "whole word" method. Later it became the "look-say"
method. While whole language is not exactly identical to these approaches,
the techniques used for word recognition are very similar. The whole language
approach is claimed to be supported by extensive scientific reasearch.
It is presented as the culmination of modern research in linguistics, 
psycholinguistics
and developmentally appropriate learning. In reality, it has very little
scientific backing and has been much less successful than current advocates
will admit.
The historical roots of the "word" method are based on learning
strategies used to teach deaf children to read. Thomas Gallaudet pioneered
this method for hearing-impaired children, since the phonetic method was
obviously not possible for them. Horace Mann observed these methods in
the mid 1800's and thought that if the approach worked so well with the
deaf, why not try it on those with normal hearing. He labelled it the 
"meaning-first"
approach, a euphemism still used in whole language. The method was never
found to be very successful. Even those who learned to read by it were
often very poor spellers and writers. As a result, it was largely abandoned
and maintained only a small following of educators. Change came in 1908,
when Dr. Edmund Huey published a book called "The Psychology and Pedagogy
of Reading". He was an incredibly influential educator who pushed
the whole word method pursuasively and relentlessly. A quote from his book
gives a glimpse of the techniques for reading he advised:
"Even if the child substitutes words of his own for some that are
on the page, provided that those express the meaning, it is an encouraging
sign that the reading has been real, and recognition of details will come
as it is needed. The shock that such a statement will give to many a 
ractical
teacher of reading is but an accurate measure of the hold that a false
ideal has taken of us, viz. that to read is to say just what is upon the
page, instead of to "think", each in his own way, the meaning
that the page suggests. Inner saying there will doubtless be, of some sort;
but not a saying that is, especially in the early reading, exactly parallel
to the forms upon the page. .. Reading to be truthful, must be free of
what is on the page."
(continued...)
Chuck Beams
Fidonet - 1:2608/70
cbeams@future.dreamscape.com
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* UniQWK #5290* I feel much better now that I've given up all hope.
--- Maximus 2.01wb
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