Discussion 2 ( Week 7)

Discuss your opinion on the differences among the whole-word and phonics/decoding approach. Provide examples

"Phonics" emphasizes the alphabetic principle – the idea that letters represent the sounds of speech, and that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken words, which is specific to the alphabetic writing system Children learn letter sounds (b = the first sound in "bat" and "ball") first and then blend them (bl = the first two sounds in "blue") to form words. Children also learn how to segment and chunk letter sounds together in order to blend them to form words (trap = /t/, /r/, /a/, /p/ or /tr/, /ap/).

"Whole language" is a method of teaching reading that emphasizes literature and text comprehension. Students are taught to use critical thinking strategies and to use context to "guess" words that they do not recognize. In the younger grades, children use invented spelling to write their own stories.

Both instructional methods use elements that are emphasized in the other; the differences between the methods are largely related to what is emphasized and the sequence of skill instruction.

Chinese is a very interesting language because every chinese letter have its own meaning. In my opinion, whole word approch is more easier for learning purpose.

The whole-word approach is a method to teach reading by introducing words to children as whole units without analysis of their subword part.Itz about teaching the child to pronounce a whole word as a single unit. Hence, whole-word recognition, or the development of a whole-word vocabulary, is a goal of whole-word instruction.
Whereas,Decoding is the ability to apply your knowledge of letter-sound relationships, including knowledge of letter patterns, to correctly pronounce written words.Understanding these relationships gives children the ability to recognize familiar words quickly and to figure out words they haven't seen before.

The whole-word approach is a method to teach reading by introducing words to children as whole units without analysis of their subword parts (Beck and Juel 2002). However, phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing by developing learners’ phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate English phonemes— in order to teach the correspondence between these sounds and the spelling patterns (graphemes) that represent them.

there is also some that would argue that phonics is better than whole word.

the progress of whole word is slow, whereas phonics is more rapid.

Whole Word requires you to memorize words as SHAPES, one by one, as you would remember faces, houses or logos. It’s hard work. The work never ends.
Phonics requires you to remember the ABC’s and the sounds associated with each letter, then the combinations, then the exceptions. If this is done rigorously, students memorize several hundred things. A nuisance, to be sure. But defenders claim that children like memorizing these items because each one gives a greater mastery.

English WORDS were not designed to be memorized as sight-objects. Anyone who tries to do this will find the job very difficult

below is the link to an interesting pictorial difference between the whole language method and phonics which i find very useful for our understanding. check it out

http://www.southern-style.com/Education/Difference%20between%20WL%20and%20Phonics.htm

whole-word approach much easier since its learned by induction, mean the children acquire it naturally than phonic/decoding approach. phonic/decoding approach is boring and confusing where children only focused on sound values of the letter rather than its meaningful concept.


in phonics/decoding approach, children masters 44 sound letter correlations that can be created in English (such as bl, pl, cr and br) before they move into actual words and texts but in whole-word approach less technique than learner-centered philosophy encouraging children to learn to read the way they learned to speak, plunging in with whole words, sentences and stories

Whole word Approach is a philosophy that assumes that reading and language competency is acquired through integrated use instead of through specific skills such as word attacks, comprehension, and vocabulary. It focuses very heavily on the use of literature and books, rather than phonics readers. The Whole word Approach involves thematic studies ant the extended use of writing. So an example would be You would make a graph on how many people in the class like red apples, yellow apples and green apples. This is your math lesson. Then you would sing a song about apples for music. Then you would use the apples for an art project. The whole word approach philosophy believes that children should learn to read naturally.

A Phonics Based Reading program relies heavily on teaching reading through decoding words. It also teaches spelling rules in a step by step, structured, sequential and cumulative process. In other words the students start with the consonants, then progress to the vowels, then the digraphs, welded sounds, suffixes and prefixes, and so on. The philosophy of a heavy phonics reading program is that through strong decoding skills, the fluency and comprehension will eventually follow. Students begin with Level 1 readers and then progress through until they reach chapter books in this structured manner.

Because all children do not learn in the same way, a blended or differentiated learning approach is necessary. If a child has dyslexia or is struggling with reading then a phonics approach is very important. This child will need a very structured step-by-step phonics program. If a child is very strong in reading and maybe even gifted, then this child will probably love a whole language approach.

a whole wprd approach concentrates more on order that i s being used to make the children tto understand or learn while Decoding or known as Phonics, writing, and whole-word recognition are typically mixed together in today's reading programs.

The role of phonic cues in whole word approaches has been reduced to those needed to identify a letter or two of a word so as to aid the confirmation of the guess. meanwhile,whole words advocates argue that these phonic cues can and should be learned without explicit teaching.

Mastering a written language is an achievement which far outweighs the requirements of speech production. Written language is an artificial, visually-based device quite distinctly more challenging than biological sounds-based processes of speech. Many children need careful, systematic teaching of decoding skills, but will not receive it in a pure whole word program.

Whole word Approach to reading is a philosophy that assumes that reading and language competency is acquired through integrated use instead of through specific skills such as word attacks, comprehension, and vocabulary. It focuses very heavily on the use of literature and books, rather than phonics readers. The whole language approach philosophy believes that children should learn to read naturally.

while on the other hand, a great emphasis is placed on reading precision, and children are encouraged to read the words exactly as they appear on the page. Children are explicitly taught "rules" about the way words are written and spelled, and they are taught spelling-sound relationships. After a teacher provides an explicit lesson in a particular Phonics rule (e.g. if the last letter of a word is an "e," then the first vowel is usually long), the child is presented with a passage of text that contains many words consistent with that rule (called decodable text); this provides the child with the opportunity to apply each Phonics rule on a variety of words in the context of a passage. The goal of the Phonics teacher, then, is to instill children with the Phonics rules and the common spelling-sound relationships, and to teach children to apply this knowledge in sounding-out each word they encounter, making the assumption that comprehension and appreciation will be a natural consequence of accuracy.

Whole Language Approach to reading is a philosophy that assumes that reading and language competency is acquired through integrated use instead of through specific skills such as word attacks, comprehension, and vocabulary. It focuses very heavily on the use of literature and books, rather than phonics readers. The Whole Language Approach involves thematic studies ant the extended use of writing. So an example would be if you are teaching the book "Johnny Appleseed" to your class. Your spelling and vocabulary lessons would be from this piece of literature. You would follow up with a writing assignment on the story. Then you would plant the seeds for science. You would make a graph on how many people in the class like red apples, yellow apples and green apples. This is your math lesson. Then you would sing a song about apples for music. Then you would use the apples for an art project. You could paint them and stamp them on paper in different colors. And so on ..... for each subject matter. The whole language approach philosophy believes that children should learn to read naturally.

A Phonics Based Reading program relies heavily on teaching reading through decoding words. It also teaches spelling rules in a step by step, structured, sequential and cumulative process. In other words the students start with the consonants, then progress to the vowels, then the digraphs, welded sounds, suffixes and prefixes, and so on. The philosophy of a heavy phonics reading program is that through strong decoding skills, the fluency and comprehension will eventually follow. Students begin with Level 1 readers and then progress through until they reach chapter books in this structured manner.

Because all children do not learn in the same way, a blended or differentiated learning approach is necessary. If a child has dyslexia or is struggling with reading then a phonics approach is very important. This child will need a very structured step-by-step phonics program. If a child is very strong in reading and maybe even gifted, then this child will probably love a whole language approach.

Whole word approach is a way of teaching children to read by recognizing words as whole pieces of language. In this process, the words are not break into phonetics segments but the entire word is thought The phonic approach, on the other hand, starts with the sounds of the alphabet. Children are exposed to simple words first, such as mat and cat. They sound them out, letter by letter. Then they are gradually introduced to the sounds of the typical letter-patterns of English, such as ch and aw and tion.

For the Phonic approach :
Teacher Directed reading instruction teaching children to sound out words first.

Children learn to open and hold a book (preferably a basal reader with controlled vocabulary) and discover that words run left to right and top to bottom.

Child masters 44 sound letter correlations that can be created in English (such as bl, pl, cr and br) before they move into actual words and texts.

Child can connect letters to sounds.

Child learns how to blend sounds.

Child recognizes letter-sound patterns such as cat, hat, bat.

Basic Skills Classroom: This teaching philosophy builds on a series of basic skills that introduce emergent readers to such fundamental skills as holding a book right side up, learning their ABCs, linking sounds and letters, connecting sounds and recognizing words with similar sound patterns.

Where as for the whole language approach :

Less technique than learner-centered philosophy encouraging children to learn to read the way they learned to speak, plunging in with whole words, sentences and stories.

Child selects own reading materials.



Child reads such "authentic" texts as class children's books and magazines.


Child interprets meaning based on experiences and understanding.


Child receives instruction in basic skills "as needed" within the context of what is read. (too bad if you're absent that day, or if the teacher doesn't "notice" you need help with a certain skill.

Child learns to decipher unfamiliar words in context. (They are taught to "guess" what the word might be from the words they recognize surrounding that word filling in with "whatever" until you guess the right word.)

Whole Language Classroom: The teaching philosophy builds on a variety of reading and writing activities that encourage emergent readers to choose their own books, enjoy classic literature, construct meaning from their own experiences, sound out words in context and decipher syntactical "clues".


And as for my opinion, i personally believe that whole language approach is much more effective in teaching reading for children, as children have good memory and they can simply memorized new things in just a glance !

Proponents of Whole Language don’t challenge the significance of phonics, just the assumption that traditional methods of phonics instruction are the only way to help kids learn to read. It’s probably true that some kids can really benefit from some direct teaching of phonics skills. But there is absolutely no justification for subjecting all students to this approach, or for making it the centerpiece of classroom reading instruction for any students, or for continuing it after kids have learned to read. Nor is there any basis for insisting that such direct instruction has to take the form of repetitive drilling of isolated phonemes.

For kids who don’t seem to be picking up a phonetic concept, such as the silent e at the end of words like line, some teachers will give a “mini-lesson” on that topic, in the context of a story chosen (or written) by students that happens to contain that word. First comes the story, then a brief to explain how this particular word is pronounced (perhaps followed by a little bit of discussion about similar words), and then back to the story. Symbols and sounds are taught in order to enjoy literature, and also in the process of enjoying literature.

Phonics is more effective method than the whole-language method. The children given the phonics method showed significant gains in reading real and nonsense words compared to children given the whole-language-plus-phonics method.


Three problems with the phonics/decoding approach

1. Wrongly focuses on sound rather than meaning
2. Decoding is a very difficult process
3. Sounding out a new word relies on meaning

the differences between the whole-word approach and decoding approach is whole-word is more natural. It allows reader to read naturally and focus on the use of literature that is there in the book. meanwhile for decoding, it instills phonic rules in the common spelling-sound relationship. it focuses more on the underlying rules which more harder for reader to compromise and comprehend unless they've been taught about it.

Phonics emphasizes the alphabetic principle – the idea that letters represent the sounds of speech, and that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken words, which is specific to the alphabetic writing system Children learn letter sounds (b = the first sound in "bat" and "ball") first and then blend them (bl = the first two sounds in "blue") to form words. Children also learn how to segment and chunk letter sounds together in order to blend them to form words (trap = /t/, /r/, /a/, /p/ or /tr/, /ap/).

Whole language is a method of teaching reading that emphasizes literature and text comprehension. Students are taught to use critical thinking strategies and to use context to guess words that they do not recognize. In the younger grades, children use invented spelling to write their own stories.

Plus..

There are pros and cons to both methods of teaching. Phonics-based reading programs tend to build better pronunciation and word recognition. The phonics formulas can be applied again and again, and will help a child with spelling far more than the memorization and guesswork of whole language.

If only taught phonetically, however, a child may have difficulty understanding the full meaning of a text, due to the constant breaking down of words into parts. Phonics critics also state that the rules and rote learning it entails are stifling and may cause children to develop the attitude that reading is a chore.

Whole language learning is thought to provide a better understanding of the text, and a more interesting and creative approach to reading. However, whole language learning may come at the expense of accuracy and correctness. A child might be awarded high marks for "overall language use," even if he or she has misspelled many words.[/font]