Whole language (WL), emerging in the late 1970s, was a theory-in-practice, grass-roots teachers' movement that dramatically changed classrooms worldwide. With an emphasis on student-centered, meaning-focused, experiential, and interactive engagement with the curriculum, this movement offered more choices and possibilities for classroom teachers…

In this historical analysis, we examine the context of debates over the role of phonics in literacy and current debates about the science of reading, with a focus on the work and impact of the late literacy scholar Jeanne Chall. We open by briefly tracing the roots of the enduring debates from the 19th and 20th centuries, focusing on beginning…

The purpose of this article is to look anew at the concepts of reading, reading development, and reading research as they exist beyond the boundaries of the "science of reading" controversy. The context for this reconceptualization is reading in the digital age and the challenges that today's readers confront daily. Those challenges…

This paper presents an evaluation of two reading methods, phonics-based instruction and whole language learning, for English Language Learners (ELLs) and discusses the learning theories, behaviorism and constructivism that are associated with each method, respectively. The study took place in a K-12 international school, with 110 Grade 1 subjects…

There have been few areas in England over the last 50 years where government has drawn more heavily on research to inform policy and practice than in the area of teaching reading. The focus of this article is an analysis of the research and evidence on early reading, in particular the role of phonics, on which government policy in England and the…

A decade after the publication of Visible Learning: A Synthesis of Over 800 Meta-Analyses Relating to Achievement, the influence of John Hattie's statistical work continues to grow. This paper critically examines one aspect of Hattie's 'synthesis' of education meta-analyses, his summation of research data for whole language literacy teaching. Of…

Improving reading instruction is one of the hottest topics in K-12 education today. It is also one of the most complex, encompassing pedagogy, policy, and politics -- all rooted in a long history of arguments about the best way to teach kids to read. This analysis is a primer on the "Science of Reading" and efforts to implement it across…

This paper represents an attempt to search for the implications of Vygotsky's approach to "the genesis of mind" for second language acquisition (SLA). In so doing, the present author has adopted first a retrospective view--what has already gone in the field of foreign language instruction, and a prospective view--what is contingent on…

The need to underline the relationship between spoken and written language in second language instruction is discussed, and the use of student dialogue journals to accomplish this is encouraged. The first section offers an overview of the whole language approach, which emphasizes integration of language skills. The second section examines briefly…

The purpose of our study was to compare the effectiveness of two song-teaching methods: holistic and phrase-by-phrase. Thirty-two first-grade children (n = 32) from two music classes in an urban elementary school were taught two folksongs. The first class (n = 16) was taught one song through the phrase-by-phrase method and another song through the…

This paper suggests that the whole language approach, widely used for first-language reading instruction, is the most appropriate means for teaching reading to learners of English as a second language (ESL). Drawing on research evidence, seven basic tenets of whole language instruction are explained and applied to ESL reading instruction. These…

Seven false but common assumptions about bilingual learners are examined, and whole language principles offering alternatives to those assumptions are presented. The seven assumptions include the following: (1) learning proceeds from part to whole; (2) classes should be teacher-centered; (3) lessons should serve students' future needs; (4)…

In this article, the authors assess the evidence related to various instructional styles for teaching reading to children with learning disabilities. Results of the literature review indicate that whole language and direct instruction are the two major approaches to teaching reading. Whole language has proven successful for many students with…

A review of the literature focuses on the use of the whole language approach to second language teaching in reading instruction for students of English as a Second Language (ESL). First, research on the whole language approach is explored, particularly as it has been used to teach reading. The approach itself is explained, and growth in its use is…

Criticisms of the whole-language approach (WL) to English-as-a-Second-language teaching are addressed, focusing on concerns about reading and grammar instruction. Criticism of grammar instruction is refuted, arguing that WL does not view grammatical knowledge as prerequisite to language use. A modification of the WL approach to reading instruction…