[NLA] Blame "whole language"

Thu Sep 19 13:06:11 EDT 2002

70% of our inner city kids can't read up to par.  This
is inexcusable.  I don't think it's the teachers, I
think its "whole language".  See below

 What Is Whole Language?
>From The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation supports
research, publications, and action projects of
national significance in elementary/secondary
education reform, as well as significant education
reform projects in Dayton, Ohio and vicinity:
http:
//www.edexcellence.net/library/wholelang/moats.html
 Even at its most popular, whole language defied
definition by those who attempted to study it
objectively. (8) Among the publications  of
whole-language advocates, one finds agreement that it
is primarily a system of beliefs and intentions. (9)
It embraces a set of  practices in teaching reading
and writing that are derived from a more general
philosophy of teaching and learning. Relying on theory
 derived largely from introspection into their own
mental processes, Ken Goodman and Frank Smith in the
late 1960s advanced the  notion that meaning and
purpose should be the salient goals in early reading
instruction
Observing that adults appear to process the written
word without recoding it letter by letter or sound by
sound, and claiming that children should learn to read
as naturally as they learn to speak, Smith asserted
that the decomposition of words into sounds was
pointless; that attention to letters was unnecessary
and meaningless; that letter-sound correspondences
were “jabberwocky” to be avoided; and that skill
development was largely boring, repetitive,
nonsensical, and unrelated to developing real
readers.(11) Smith, Goodman, and their disciples
pushed ideas that were eagerly and readily embraced by
progressive educators turned off by drab basal
readers,(12) mechanistic drills, and the knowledge
that the basal readers in use had not solved all of
their instructional challenges. Teachers were
persuaded that the cause of most reading failure was
insufficient emphasis on reading real books for real
purposes. By the mid-1980s, schools were ready to
throw out basal readers, phonics workbooks, spelling
programs, and other “canned” material so that teachers
could create individualized reading instruction with
“authentic” children’s literature.
The International Reading Association (IRA) and the
National Council for Teachers of English vigorously
promoted the philosophy and practices of whole
language. Publishing houses, university reading
departments, state education agencies, and
professional development providers jumped on the
bandwagon. The ideas were disseminated through
Internet connections, teacher journals that do not
require articles to meet standards of scientific
accuracy, courses and textbooks used in schools of
education, and instructional manuals for teachers.
Recently published books and articles(13) continue to
characterize the orthodoxy of whole language as
follows:
Children and adults use similar strategies to read and
spell. Whole-language believers assert that children
process print and comprehend it like adults. Children
will learn from imitating adult reading. The teacher
is a model of adult literacy, and modeling is a method
for teaching children. Thus, the teacher is encouraged
to sit in front of the class and to be seen reading
silently for a portion of each day in which the
children are also to be reading silently or in pairs.
The teacher is also to read aloud, pointing to the
print in a big book, as children follow along. The
children may point to the words as the teacher reads
them. The passage is read several times this way until
it is memorized.(14)
Although this traditional practice may be worthwhile,
“shared reading” in whole language has replaced
instruction in how to read the words sound by sound.
Children are expected to figure out for themselves the
connection between the letters and the sounds of the
words as the adult points to them. There is no further
explication of how the letters represent words. The
assumption that children learn like adults also
translates into student choice of reading material, a
focus on advanced reading comprehension strategies for
young children, avoidance of reading groups or
sequential oral reading, and ample time in school for
independent silent reading in the company of others
(Drop Everything and Read!). These activities are the
instructional core of a whole-language curriculum, not
ancillary components

Almost every premise advanced by whole language about
how reading is learned has been contradicted by
scientific investigations that have established the
following facts: 
Learning to read is not a "natural" process. Most
children must be taught to read through a structured
and protracted process in which they are made aware of
sounds and the symbols that represent them,  and then
learn to apply these skills automatically and attend
to meaning.  Our alphabetic writing system is not
learned simply from exposure to print. Phonological
awareness is primarily responsible for the ability to
sound words out. The ability to use phonics and to
sound words out, in turn, is primarily responsible for
the development of context-free word-recognition
ability, which in turn is primarily responsible for
the development of the ability to read and comprehend
connected text.  Spoken language and written language
are very different; mastery of each requires unique
skills.  The most important skill in early reading is
the ability to read single words completely,
accurately, and fluently.  Context is not the primary
factor in word recognition.  Despite overwhelming
evidence, the reading field rushed to embrace
unfounded whole-language practices between 1975 and
1995. The effects have been far-reaching, particularly
for those students who are most dependent on effective
instruction within the classroom. 
Whole language persists today for several reasons. A
pervasive lack of rigor in university education
departments has allowed much nonsense to infect
reading-research symposia, courses for teachers,  and
journals. Many reading programs have come to covertly
embody whole-language principles. Additionally, many
state standards and curricular frameworks still
reflect whole-language ideas. 

--- AWilder106 at aol.com wrote:
> Eileen,
> 
> I would mandate certification which included
> instruction in phonics and 
> phonology and whole language techniques.  I invite
> anyone who demurs from 
> advancing down this path to read some of the
> Goodmans' work.  I would also 
> mandate training in the recognition and remediation
> of learning disabilities, 
> in the understanding that about 2-3% of the
> population has a learning 
> disability (not "difficulty," the consequence of
> poor teaching, poor teacher 
> training).  
> 
> As certification is under state control, I believe,
> this would be done at the 
> state level.  I do think it verges on the criminal
> not to require teacher 
> mastery of knowledge about learning difficulties,
> and learning disabilities.  
> In volunteer programs a program manager could be
> trained to teach and train 
> volunteers.
> 
> "Whole language" is a very big umbrella, it covers,
> for example project work 
> like that which produced the videotape "Together We
> Bloom,"  as well as 
> systematic use of "miscue analysis" which Art, for
> example, used in a casual 
> way by giving entering students the newspaper to
> read.  
> 
> Others will have ideas about the best ways to bring
> this about.  My guess is 
> that these techniques are already in some use in
> adult literacy classrooms.
> 
> Andrea
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