1. Whole Language Approach
Lect. Dr. Seden Eraldemir Tuyan
Week 2

3. Background First created in the 1980s
Main argument: Language should be taught as a whole.
In education, there have been many ways of teaching of reading and writing in L1 (literacy)

4. One reading theory (traditional) is decoding.
Decoding: teaching the separate components of language, such as grammar, vocabulary, word recognition, and particularly phonics.
Theory behind phonics: reading involves identifying letters and turning them into sounds.

5. Whole language is totally against the idea of teaching separate components and see the language as a whole.
Developed to teach young children to read; then extended to secondary schools and ESL.

6. Also relates to natural approaches to language learning
Whole Language
Emphasizes on reading and writing naturally
Focus on real communication
Reading and writing for pleasure.
In language teaching it shares a philosophical and instructional perspective with Communicative Language Teaching.
Gives importance to meaning and meaning making in teaching and learning.
Also relates to natural approaches to language learning
Designed to help children and adults to learn a second language in the same way that children acquire their first language.

7. There are discussions whether Whole Language is an approach, a method, a philosophy or a belief
Can be seen as an approach because of the main principles of Whole Language
Language is whole
Reading, writing, listening and speaking should be integrated in learning

8. Approach: Theory of language and learning
From an interactional perspective (social perspective)
Views language as a vehicle for human communication
There is an interactional relationship between readers and writers
Language use is always in a social context both in oral and in written language
Emphasis is on
authenticity
engagement with the authors of written texts
conversation.
For example: to master sociolinguistic signals for ‘apologizing’, there needs to be an authentic, real situation in which one truly needs to apologize to another.

9. From a psycholinguistic view (internal interaction)
Language is used for thinking: in order to discover what we know, we sometimes write, or talk to a friend or mutter to ourselves silently
Functional model is mostly used: Language is always seen as something that is used for meaningful purpose and to carry out authentic functions.

10. The Learning Theory Humanistic
Authentic
Personalized
Self-directed
Collaborative
Pluralistic
These are believed to focus learner attention and to motivate mastery.
Constructivist
Knowledge is socially constructed, rather than received or discovered.
Create meaning/Learn by doing/Work collaboratively
Teachers collaborate and understand learners in their mutual social context rather than transmitting knowledge to learners
Learning focus is on learners’ experience, needs, interests rather than aiming to cover the curriculum

11. Design: Principles of Whole Language
Use of authentic literature rather than artificial, specially prepared texts and exercises designed to practice individual reading skills
Focus on real and natural events rather than on specially written stories that do not relate to the students’ experience
Reading of real texts of high interest, particularly literature
Reading for the sake of comprehension and for a real purpose
Writing for a real audience and not simply to practice writing skills
Writing as a process through which learners explore and discover meaning

12. Design: Principles of Whole Language
Use of student-produced texts rather than teacher-generated or other-generated texts
Integration of reading, writing and other skills
Student centered learning: students have choice over what they read and write, giving them power and understanding of their world
Reading and writing in partnership with other learners
Encouragement of risk taking and exploration and the acceptance of errors as signs of learning rather than of failure

13. Teacher’s role Facilitator / Coach
Active participant in the learning community
Teaches students and not subject matter
Looks for occurrence of teachable moments rather than following a pre-planned lesson plan
Creates a climate that supports collaborative learning
Negotiates the plan of work with the learners

14. Learner’s role
Collaborator: collaborates with fellow students, with the teacher, with writers of texts
Evaluator: evaluates their own and others’ learning with the help of the teacher
Self-directed: his/her own learning experiences are used as resources for learning
Selector of materials and activities

15. Materials Real world materials rather than commercial texts
A piece of literature
Newspapers
Signs
Storybooks
Handbills
Handouts from the workplace
Materials produced by the students (rather than buying prepared textbooks)

16. Procedure
There are many different procedures of Whole Language but the following are the most common ones:
The use of literature
The use of process writing
Encouragement of cooperative learning among students
Concern for students attitude

17. Activities Individual and small group reading and writing
Ungraded dialogue journals
Writing portfolios
Writing conferences
Student-made books
Story writing

18. Many activities in Whole Language are also common in Communicative Language Teaching, Content-Based Teaching, Task-Based Teaching
The main difference
Focus of literature in Whole Language
Use of literature might be familiar to most language teachers but in Whole Language such activities are an overall philosophy of teaching and learning which gives a new meaning and purpose to such activities; not incidental use of such activities based on the topic of the lesson or an item in the syllabus

19. An Example of Literary Use: Parallel Texts
Two English translations of the same story is used.
These translations highlight the range of linguistic choices open to the writer in the contrast of linguistic choices made by the translators and the responses made to these choices by the students as readers.
In pairs, one student acts as presenter/interpreter of one of the two translations and the partner acts as presenter/interpreter of the other

20. Parallel Texts
1a. The village on the northern side of the 38th parallel frontier was ever so quiet and desolate beneath the high, clear autumn sky. White grounds leaned on white gourds as they swayed in the yard of an empty house.
1b. The northern village at the border of the 38th Parallel was ever so snug under the bright high autumn sky. In the space between the two main rooms of the empty farm house a white empty gourd was lying against another white empty gourd.

21. Examples of student activities on parallel texts
1. Think of the village as described in 1a and 1b as two different villages. Which one would you choose to live in? Why?
2. Do the contrasting opening sentences set up any different expectations in the reader as to what kind of story will follow and what the tone of the story will be?
3. On a map of Korea, each partner should indicate where s/he thinks the village is located. Are the locations the same? If not, why not?

22. Conclusion
The Whole Language is not a teaching method but an approach to learning that sees language as the whole entity.
Advantages of WL
Focuses on experiences and activities that are relevant to learners’ lives and needs
Uses authentic materials
Can be used to facilitate the development of all aspects of a second language

23. Criticism
Rejection of the whole ESL approach in language teaching
Seen as applying native-language principles to ESL
WL is seen as anti-direct teaching, anti-skills, and anti-materials: the assumption is that authentic texts are sufficient to support second language learning and that skill development will follow without special attention.