The purpose of this study was to examine how my reading instruction had been situated within my school's literacy program. As a way to investigate this study, I employed qualitative teacher research. I used reading theory (Whole Language and Direct Instruction) as the analytical lens for my analysis. The results illustrated how the Direct…

The purposes of this study are: (1) to investigate students' perceptions of computer-assisted whole language instruction; (2) to examine the effectiveness of whole language instruction on students' reading improvement; and (3) to determine the difference between basic-level and advanced-level students' improvement in reading skills. A total of 212…

"Research Informing Practice--Practice Informing Research: Innovative Teaching Methodologies for World Language Educators" is an edited volume that focuses on innovative, nontraditional methods of teaching and learning world languages. Using teacher-research projects, each author in the volume guides readers through their own personal…

The dichotomisation of literacy instruction into phonics instruction versus a whole language approach fails to realise a fundamental tenet of providing equitable educational opportunities to diverse groups of children. Diversity becomes a problem to solve through "inoculation programmes" or "special" education expertise.…

This article discusses whole language and phonics approaches to teaching L1 reading. It argues to bring these two perspectives together under an integrated approach to better teach second language reading. The article offers an integrated lesson plan with adaptable activities and techniques that show how to apply the integrated approach.

Discusses a new orthodoxy about to hit the schools in Australia, which sounds like a piece of "nonsensical madness": guided writing. Cautions educators not to be blinded by new orthodoxies. Encourages teachers to keep their perspective when presented with new teaching ideas. (SG)

Contemporary education theory (and official South African policy) underwrites learner-centredness. I analyse learner-centredness as a possible piece of the puzzle about why it is proving so difficult to improve academic achievement. Learner-centred ideas are grounded in the belief that cognitive abilities develop spontaneously in accordance with a…

Cambourne and Turbill trace the growth, change and finally marginalisation of progressive approaches to literacy education by examining whole language philosophy in Australia from the 1960s to the present. Using a critical lens, Cambourne and Turbill describe how whole language has been positioned throughout the last nearly 50 years in terms of…

This paper examines the media and political landscapes within which "whole language" is currently constituted in Australia. Through surveying the themes and rhetoric deployed in media texts over recent years, we consider how "whole language" has been taken up as part of a wider media campaign around education generally. We…

Seikatsu tsuzurikata is a grassroots movement in Japan that has many parallels to the whole language movement, but it developed completely independently, beginning in the late 1920s. Our research into this movement was conducted in 1984 and described in Kitagawa and Kitagawa (1987). We are now updating our earlier research. Seikatsu tsuzurikata is…

Focusing on the whole language and the direct instructional approaches, this pamphlet summarizes research on teaching and learning spelling. The pamphlet notes that the goal of the whole language approach to spelling instruction is to produce competent, independent spellers who learn through use and express their progress as increasingly…

Contends most people in Third World need functional and development-oriented literacy (FDL) if they are to contribute meaningfully to illiteracy eradication and attainment of sustainable national development in respective countries. Arguing current literacy instruction approaches in most Third World countries can't sustain FDL, suggests adoption…

Whole language may be described as authentic and purposeful experiences with language in a child's natural environment--it is a philosophy that combines all content area subjects into a meaningful process. The teaching of whole language over the entire spectrum of the curriculum was observed in the Catholic Primary Schools of the Archdiocese of…

Discusses the state of elementary education in Fiji. Provides one Fijian principal's optimistic approach to implementing a whole language approach to the teaching of reading. Notes the teachers' original opposition to change, and the difficulty of maintaining change. (PM)

Presents the Holistic Educational Literacy Process strategy for adult literacy education consisting of the following 10 steps: presenting an advance organizer; reading silently; reading aloud; listening to the passage recorded; listening and taking notes; highlighting important points; networking structures; summarizing the passage; revising the…