Posted on 08/27/2002 7:56:00 AM PDT by Onelifetogive
If this had only a little more nitrogen in it, it would be great for spreading on tomatoes.
Whole Language over simple effective Phonics; Central Economic Planning over simple self-interest; religions with myriad rules over simple Faith
The world is infested with idiots who take simple things and try to make them complicated so that they can "feel" smarter than everyone else.
Whole Language over simple effective Phonics; Central Economic Planning over simple self-interest; religions with myriad rules over simple Faith
It all depends on what the meaning of "is" is.
This may explain why students schooled in "Whole Language" are generally unable to "get the meaning from text."
Michael
I don't want my child looking at PICTOGRAMS. Words are the foundation of language.
And it sure provides them with lifelong jobs, doesn't it?
I used Mr. Blumenfeld's "AlphaPhonics" book to teach my youngest two to read at age 5. It is so straightforward and uncomplicated it's no wonder the schools are moving away from phonics; having quick-learning readers deprives them of all kinds of "learning disabled" funding, don'tcha know.
When the above principles and practices of WL reading teaching are examined experimentally, it consistently is found that none of them is corroborated. The response to this situation by present-day major-domos of WL is to denounce as bogus any scientific research finding that disputes the validity of WL doctrines, and the peculiar manner in which its dogmas are implemented.
Despite the empirically discredited nature of WL, conversions of teachers to it over the years have grown rapidly. State departments of education follow suit by mandating that WL reading teaching be conducted in preference to the DISEC variety.
California offers an illustrative example of the dire consequences of WL's popularity. In 1987, this state's Department of Education dictated use of WL reading teaching in its public schools. By 1995, the federally-funded National Assessment of Educational Progress (which includes a standardized, objective reading test) reported that WL reading teaching in California was more fashionable here than in any other state. At the same time, however, California students had devolved into the least competent readers in the nation.
Exactamundo.
You nailed it exactly on the head. Whole language is essentially memorizing the appearance of a word, as if it were a drawing, instead of decoding the letters to make sounds to make words. The process of encoding/decoding letters and sounds is what makes our writing system so superior.
Robert K Logan wrote a fantastic book called The Alphabet Effect: The Impact of the Phonetic Alphabet on the Development of Western Civilization in which he discusses how our system writing allows for a level of abstraction and innovation that far exceeds that of any other writing system. He argues that since there are only so many symbols a person can memorize (an effect seen around third or fourth grade when all the whole-language kids mysteriously 'stop' being able to 'read') and since there are a limited number of simple pictograms, each describing a concrete object, to draw new 'words' with there is a built-in limit to the number of ideas that can be named under such a system.
Logan argues that the alphabet, with its unlimited combinations of letters (that each describe a sound instead of an object) and potential to give any new idea a name/word, fosters innovation and abstract thinking and is the reason for the advancements of western civilization.
Phonics frees your mind. Spread the word.
I pondered one of the snootier sentences from the artice:
"From a whole-language perspective, reading (and language use in general) is a process of generating hypotheses in a meaning-making transaction in a sociohistorical context."
After about ten minutes I figured out that all the author was trying to say was:
"The whole language approach is based on the idea that reading and language involve figuring out what you think somebody is trying to say in a particular context."
In other words, pick up a book, guess what the author wanted to say, and that's what the book says. Sounds like a pretty good technique of speed reading. Wonder if it could be done with books still sitting on the shelf.
BTW, even if the "whole language" approach did allow students to be taught a useful vocabulary, it would still not allow them to readily expand their vocabulary not use tools like a dictionary (one who understands rules of phonetic construction can usually, perhaps with a few attempts, locate an unfamiar word in a dictionary after hearing it; one who does not understand such rules would have no idea where to begin).
Sounds a bit like the goals of Newspeak, doesn't it?
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