Whole language, a relatively new approach emerged in theNorth America about more than thirty years ago, has becomeone of the two major philosophies (Phonics and WholeLanguage) in teaching and learning language. "...Whole language, a relatively new approach emerged in theNorth America about more than thirty years ago, has becomeone of the two major philosophies (Phonics and WholeLanguage) in teaching and learning language. "The future ofwhole language is the future of education." (Goodman, 1992).Whole language is gaining its popularity all over the world andhas found its way into various language settings. It has also beenushered into the field of second language education. Whole lan-guage entails whole learners, whole teachers, whole texts, wholemethods, whole skills and whole environments. This paper at-tempts to introduce its definitions and explore its implications inteaching and learning English as a foreign language (EFL). Italso analyzes its limitations so that instructors, when imple-menting this approach in EFL classrooms, could make necessaryadaptations by taking into consideration the characteristics ofEFL learners, including their linguistic proficiency, sociocultur-al variables, and career orientations, and at the same time makesure that EFL classroom activities reflect wholeness of the majorcomponents underlying this approach.展开更多
文摘Whole language, a relatively new approach emerged in theNorth America about more than thirty years ago, has becomeone of the two major philosophies (Phonics and WholeLanguage) in teaching and learning language. "The future ofwhole language is the future of education." (Goodman, 1992).Whole language is gaining its popularity all over the world andhas found its way into various language settings. It has also beenushered into the field of second language education. Whole lan-guage entails whole learners, whole teachers, whole texts, wholemethods, whole skills and whole environments. This paper at-tempts to introduce its definitions and explore its implications inteaching and learning English as a foreign language (EFL). Italso analyzes its limitations so that instructors, when imple-menting this approach in EFL classrooms, could make necessaryadaptations by taking into consideration the characteristics ofEFL learners, including their linguistic proficiency, sociocultur-al variables, and career orientations, and at the same time makesure that EFL classroom activities reflect wholeness of the majorcomponents underlying this approach.
