WHOLE LANGUAGE: IT'S A MATTER OF A WRONG ASSUMPTION

Abstract

The merits of whole‐language instruction practices cannot be discussed properly unless the assumption about instruction on which they are based is examined in a critical way. Whether certain principles of literacy instruction that are said to verify whole‐language practices actually do so can be validated satisfactorily only if whole language's fundamental assumption about instruction is correct. In his defense of whole‐language practices, Dudley‐Marling (1995) noted that the leaders of the whole‐language approach have adopted certain principles of instruction that they claim confirm their fundamental assumption about children's acquisition of literacy. When this assumption is analyzed, however, it is shown to be faulty. It is irrelevant to point out principles of instruction that underlie the fundamental assumption of whole language when the assumption itself is incorrect.