http://literacyblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016 ... l?spref=tw
Do read the whole piece - it isn't long!What are the problems with Whole Language and why doesn't it work?
So, what is wrong with a Whole Language approach?
The allure of using Whole Language to teach children to read lies mainly in the fact that, as you'd expect, humans are heavily biased towards meaning and a whole word approach has an immediate appeal because, at the beginning, it seems so easy. On the other side of the methodological divide, learning how to recognise letter shapes as representations of sounds is hard work from the start even though it gets easier as learning progresses.
So, what is wrong with a Whole Language approach?