关于Whole Language（转）

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The term Whole Language was created in the 1980sby a group of U.S. educators concerned with the teaching of language arts(Richards & Rodgers, 2001). The Whole LanguageApproach emphasizes learning to read and write naturally with afocus on real communication and reading and writing for pleasure.In the 1990s, it became popular in the United States as amotivating and innovating way of teaching language arts skills toprimary school children. It shares a philosophical andinstructional perspective with Communicative Language Teachingbecause it emphasizes the importance of meaning and meaning makingin teaching and learning. It also relates to natural approaches tolanguage learning since it is designed to help children and adultslearn a second language in the same way that children learn theirfirst language.

Whole Language advocates believe that languageshould be whole, meaningful, and relevant to the learners (Goodman,1986). Therefore, the appropriate materials are what children needor want to read or write, and the curriculum should be authenticand integrated. Cerbus and Rice (1995) explained that a wholelanguage classroom provides a print-rich environment in whichchildren learn to use and enjoy written and spoken languagenaturally. In a whole language program, skill development andenrichment activities are arranged around a literary experience.Instead of teaching reading, language, writing, spelling, andspeaking as separate units, the teacher relates all of these to aparticular book, story, or poem. Reading is supported withactivities that combine listening, writing, speaking, andillustrating. Bergeron (1990) found that Whole Language wasdescribed differently in sixty-four articles. Only four classroomfeatures were mentioned in more than fifty percent of the articles.They are the use of literature, the use of process writing, theencouragement of cooperative learning among students and theconcern for students’ attitude.

As this study adapted the philosophies of WholeLanguage Approach, literature related to the materials andactivities used in a whole language classroom, including picturebooks, reading aloud, reading-writing connections and skillintegration, will be reviewed in the followingparagraphs.