Language Arts Journal of Michigan Volume 14 Article 5 Issue 1 Whole Language - Dead or Alive? 1998 Whole Language: Origins and Practice Greg Shafer Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/lajm Recommended Citation Shafer, Greg (1998) "Whole Language: Origins and Practice," Language Arts Journal of Michigan: Vol. 14: Iss. 1, Article 5. Available at: https://doi.org/10.9707/2168-149X.1429 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@GVSU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Language Arts Journal of Michigan by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks@GVSU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Whole Language: Origins and Practice Greg Shafer People have been arguing about whole lan­ development. For the first time, then. language guage and the educational philosophy it embraces was not something to be taught as much as part of since its inception in the early 1980s. For some, it growth which required guidance. represents a disquieting departure from long- cel­ Chomsky's challenge to behaviorism took tan­ ebrated notions about the political and pedagogi­ gible form in his publication of Syntactic cal direction of our schools. To them, it is nothing Structures in 1957. In this seminal work. he ques­ but a prescription for permissive, indolent, tioned the linguistic model that portrayed lan­ Summerhill-like nonsense. For others, however, it guage acquisition as mechanical and teacher-dri­ is nothing short of a panacea, a revolutionary ven. For B. F. Skinner and the disciples of behav­ response to the top-down, alienating practices of iorism, speech instruction had always been simi­ the workbook era. Advocates point to the liberat­ lar to the conditioning one used to induce a pigeon ing influences of a system that is democratic, one to pick at a colored light. For these educators, that designs lessons around students rather than learning was programmed because children prescribing skills out of context. always responded predictably to a stimulus. Like Such dichotomies, of course, are both exag­ the blank slates of John Locke's time. children gerated and regressive. Whole language and the were seen as vacuous, passive, and dependent theories, lessons, and scholarship which radiate upon instruction. from its philosophy, carry with them few man­ Warriner's English Grammar Book, as an dates for laziness or guarantees of success. What example, was organized with the most basic, sim­ whole language does promote is an invitation to plistic skills introduced first. It was the implicit re-envision the act of learning and the linguistic contention of the authors that children needed to ability children bring to the scholastic context. In be taught language - its syntax and rules ­ this essay, I would like to examine whole lan­ before they could use it. guage, its origins, proponents, theories. and prac­ Chomsky's response to Skinner and his tical application in the high school English class. behavioristic model came in the development of what came to be called transformational grammar. The Noam Chomsky Challenge In it, Chomsky argued that language is meaning­ There is little question that the seeds of the centered, complex. and forever interwoven in the whole language movement are firmly rooted in the life and energy of the learner. Linguist Julia Falk theories of linguist Noam Chomsky and his con­ describes Chomsky's contribution this way: tention that language is natural. generative, and He began to raise questions about how lan­ automatic. For educators. Chomsky's assertions, guage exists in the minds of human beings especially when combined with the work of Jean and about what it is that permits speakers of Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. represented a Copern­ a language to use that language creatively ican-like change in the way language was taught. producing and understanding sentences that Where generations of English teachers had per­ they have never before heard or seen. (71) ceived reading. writing. and speech as artificial, behavioristic responses to conditioning. the From Chomsky's scholarship came an emerg­ Chomskyian school saw them as natural, active, ing model of literacy that represented a dramatic and learner-driven - a predictable step in one's reversal in how the process of learning was 18 Language Arts Journal of Michigan approached. No longer seen as empty receptacles Goodman. "that as children transact with their waiting to be filled with information. the student world. they are capable of doing more than they was now perceived as a creator of knowledge. a appear to be and that they can get much more out generator of information which radiated quite flu­ of an activity or experience if there is an adult or idly from her curious. ever-evolving vision of the more experienced playmate to mediate the experi­ world. "People," argued Chomsky, "come born ence for them" (228). with the ability to develop language. That is, In understanding this philosophy. we must babies learn to speak and listen through a natural focus on words like mediation and nurturer. for process of imitation and maturation" (1975). they capture the essence of the dramatic transi­ tion that was occurring in linguistic scholarship. The Infiuence of Jean Piaget Instead of being acted upon. instead of being Adding wood to the linguistic fire was the taught and conditioned. students were seen as work of Jean Piaget, who, in his own way. con­ active participants in an academic setting that tributed to and refined the theory set forth by acknowledged the amazing ability they brought to Chomsky. Especially interesting was his assertion each context. that children learn language for personal and aes­ Much of this enthusiasm. of course. was also thetic reasons and through a gradual, construc­ precipitated by observations of infants as they tive approach to society. From the Piagetian labo­ acquired language and often began to read and ratory came concepts like accommodation. assim­ write before ever being SUbjected to formal ilation. and schemata. It was Piaget's belief that instruction. Why. scientists asked. do we espouse language was a process of active exploration and a behavioristic approach to language pedagogy discovery - a constant building of meaning. when it seems clear that preschool children learn According to this theory, then, children main­ speech effortlessly and with an efficiency that tained a model or schemata of the world based on belies any need for formal instruction? Indeed. their perceptions and experiences. With each with all of the hand-wringing about why Johnny event. this schemata assimilated and accommo­ can't read. write. or recite the dates of the Civil dated new information and went through gradual War, it is curious to see no examples of children adjustments. Strickland chronicles the Piagetian failing to acquire the language skill that is rarely perception this way: part of a scholastic setting - speech. Emerging from the scholarship of Chomsky, As learners encounter new information, they Piaget. and Vygotsky came a whole language para­ integrate it with what they already know. digm which celebrated the student's inherent abil­ They then apply this new knowledge to novel ity and desire to generate sophisticated. socially­ situations (assimilation) and restructure driven language. Frank Smith. a prominent leader their schemata to include the new knowl­ of the whole language model. best captures its edge (accommodation). (GaIda, Cullinan, tenets when he argues. "my own recommendation Strickland 10) for how reading and writing should be taught is perhaps radical; they should not be taught at all" Vygotsky's Contributions (211). An equally significant contribution to the What Smith advocates, of course. is that skills whole language school was made by Lev Vygotsky. instruction and programmed mastery learning ­ the Russian psychologist and educator who most behavioristic schemes that do not allow for indi­ adamantly advocated a language approach which vidual language experiences - be replaced with celebrated the inherent knowledge of the learner. reading and writing assignments that are mean­ In particular, Vygotsky wrote about the power of ingful for each dynamic individual. Students come social interaction, play. and the importance of cre­ to English classes with an intrinsic desire to make ating learning contexts that foster discovery. "The sense of their world and to do so through commu­ best method for teaching reading and writing is nication. Whole language teachers acknowledge one in which children do not learn to read and this linguistic skill and motivation and design write but in which both of these skills are found in their classes so that learning in school is conso­ play situations" (118). nant with the inventive spirit and personal goals of Thus, continues Vygotsky. educators are most each student. Connie Weaver. who has written a effective in the role of nurturer. Because learning very helpful handbook on whole language says, is an outgrowth of playful, curious ventures into "Meaning and learning should be based on a social interaction, one does not have to reinforce model that emphasizes development which is it artificially or subject it to elaborate schemes. facilitated but not directly controlled by the "Vygotsky helps us to understand," writes Yetta teacher"(9). Spring 1998 19 The Opposition to Whole Language adjectives, nouns, verbs, and other parts of Over the years, various writers, politicians, speech, is often replaced with meaningful lan­