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When it comes to learning English, a combination of whole language and phonics will work best. As the saying goes, two heads are better than one and a combination of whole language and phonics is always going to be the best way to go. Both whole language and phonics have their benefits, and children will learn how to read more quickly and easily if they get the best of both of best words. I don't see why children have to be taught with one method or the other.

However, if you have to pick one or the other, whole language is the better choice. Whole language gives you more of the big picture than phonics does. Phonics is more complicated and is also confusing to lots of children. Also, many words are not pronounced liked they are spelled, examples include pizza, picture, half, etc., and there are also homonyms such as bear and bare. Children are going to understand whole language more easily. There are too many exceptions and rules in the English language to be able to rely on phonics. For example, phonics can't help you when it comes to silent letters like the k in knife or the m in mnemonics. Whole language doesn't use short cuts, and you can't rely on using shortcuts to read or write in real life. Whole language is better since it's not a good idea to teacher children bad habits.

Phonics focuses on sounding things out and dissecting the word part by part. With whole language, the whole word is viewed, voiced and remembered in the context of its usage. Meaning is then derived as the child remembers how the words are used in various contexts. Since the whole purpose of reading is to get meaning out of the words, whole language is clearly the better choice.

Whole language focuses on real words and sentences that makes sense while phonics tends to focus on rhyme and rhythm. Whole language lets children focus on comprehending the words and their meanings instead of having to focus on sounding out the syllables. Whole language also lets children work on getting a context out of sentences and paragraphs instead of having to sound out each word separately. However, whole language isn't going to be better for every single child. The truth of the matter is that it really depends on the learning style of the individual child and how much prior experience he or she has with reading.

Learn more about this author, Christina A. Armani.
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