What is whole language approach?

The whole language approach is an innovative way to teach/learn a language. This approach stresses the importance of learning through experiences as well as meaning-making. According to this approach, kids’ language experience plays a significant role when they speak. Therefore, an association is formed between the language and kids’ experience. A kid’s literacy practice is largely influenced by this association.

All whole language proponents believe that a language’s functional aspects should be taught. They denounce the phonic-based approach and strongly agree on the fact that every language is a meaning-making system and therefore, its all aspects—including graphophonic, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic—should be considered during teaching.

This approach goes a long way in developing students’ interest in reading, especially in literature. Whole language approach books are rich in attention-grabbing stories. So, students can easily get enticed to read these books and it ultimately improves their linguistic skills.

Unlike the phonic-based approach, all structural aspects of a language come secondary to the whole language approach. Whole language teachers mainly focus on improving their students’ capability of understanding meaning, thereby enhancing their grasp of the language.

Similarly, feedback mechanism in the whole language approach is quite different. Teachers provide constructive feedback to students and then, assist them in learning the appropriate structure and form of a language through various experiences.

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