August 22, 2008

Whole Language and Phonics Methods in Adult Reading Instruction

Tom Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education

Shortly after the turn of the century, Huey (1968/1908) published his
classic volume on The Psychology and Pedagogy of Reading. In it he pointed
out that "The methods of learning to read that are in common use to-day may
be classed as alphabetic, phonic, phonetic, word, sentence, and combination
methods." Eight years later, Klapper (1914) published a book in which he
presented a classification system for methods of teaching reading. In his
system he created two divisions, one for the Synthetic Methods and the
other for the Analytic Methods.

As Synthetic Methods, Klapper included the Alphabetic, Phonic, and Phonetic
methods. In the classification system that Jeanne Chall (1967) developed,
these methods would be called those of a "code emphasis" and the
contemporary term would be "alphabetics." These methods consider the
teaching of reading as essentially a means of "decoding" the written text
to recover a spoken message which is then comprehended as usual. In these
methods parts of speech sounds are associated with the letters of the
alphabet, and then with written syllables and then with words in a
synthesis of parts into wholes.

As Analytic Methods, Klapper included the Word Basis and Thought Basis.
Under the Thought Basis method he included the Sentence Unit and the Story
Unit. In Jeanne Chall’s classification system, the Analytic Methods would
be called "meaning emphasis" and the contemporary term would be "whole
language." These methods consider the teaching of reading as essentially a
means of "meaning making" and consider the written text as a guide for the
learner to use in constructing the meaning the author has in mind. The
meaning making process serves as an aid to learning to decode the written
language in a whole to part analysis process.

Throughout the 20th century, both Synthetic and Analytic methods of teaching
reading have been favored by different adult literacy educators. Among the
major, pioneering, adult literacy educators favoring the Synthetic,"code" ,
or alphabetics methods are Harriet A. Jacobs (1987/1861), J. Duncan Spaeth
(1919)  and Frank Laubach (1947, 1960). Those favoring the Analytic,
"meaning making " , or whole language methods include Cora Wilson Stewart
(1922), Paul Witty (1947,1943), Septima Poinsette Clark (1962,1986), and
Ruth Colvin (1992).

Interestingly, what might be called an early "mini-war" between a whole
language and a phonics advocate took place during World War I. In this
"war", Cora Wilson Stewart, who favored whole language (word or sentence)
methods provided guidance to J. Duncan Spaeth, an alphabetics devotee, in
his preparation of the first edition (1918) of the Camp Reader for American
Soldiers. This was a Reader used for teaching illiterate, poorly literate,
or non-English speaking soldiers how to read and write English. In this
Reader Spaeth acknowledged the contributions of Stewart. Indeed, he
followed the example of using sight words at the beginning of a lesson,
followed by reading sentences that included the words. This followed the
whole language method used by Stewart.

But Spaeth deviated from Stewart’s strict whole language method and followed
the reading of sentences with what he called a "sound drill," a version of
phonics in which the sounds of the letters in the words used in the
sentences were taught. In his instructions to teachers Spaeth provided just
one page of guidance on the word, sentence, and phonics methods.  However,
in the revised edition (1919) of the Camp Reader, Spaeth dropped
acknowledgements of Stewart’s contributions and wrote an extensive
teacher’s manual in the first part of the Reader that taught the
alphabetics of reading instruction, and he included an appendix on how to
teach non-English speakers, too. He then went on to make combined use of
whole language and extensive phonics instruction right from the first
lesson of the Reader to its end.

An interesting joining together of phonics and whole language advocates came
about in 2001. That year two of the oldest and largest volunteer literacy
organizations in the United States – Laubach Literacy International founded
by Dr. Frank C. Laubach in 1955, and Literacy Volunteers of America, founded
in 1962 by Ruth Colvin- signed a memorandum of understanding that merged the
two organizations into one called ProLiteracy Worldwide.  Laubach was
strongly committed to an a synthetic (phonics, alphabetics) method and
indeed he devoted considerable time to developing alphabets for peoples so
they could encode their oral language into a written language for
communication by writing and reading.

Writing in her book entitled A Way With Words (1992), Ruth Colvin said: "LVA
is now committed to basing its training on whole language theory, where all
parts of language – listening, speaking, reading, writing and comprehension
– are integrated in lessons." (p. 36). Today, ProLiteracy Worldwide provides
materials through its New Readers Press that appear on examination to
support both phonics and whole language approaches which tutors can use in
either separate or integrated methods depending upon the tutor’s
understanding of their learners needs.

Very little research has been found bearing on the relative effectiveness of
alphabetcs-based versus whole language-based adult literacy education.
However, Bowen (1990) presented pre- and post-test data for 23 literacy
programs in Illinois in 1988. The programs included four LVA programs, six
Laubach Literacy Action programs and 13 "eclectric" programs. The results
were comparable for all the programs with no one approach appearing to
produce more gain than another.

Today, the teaching of adult reading by either the alphabetics or whole
language approaches appears to be supported by the differences in
professional wisdom of a number of pioneers in the field of adult literacy
education.  Scientific research to support one or another approach to adult
reading instruction has not been found.

References

Bowren, F. et al. (1990, April). An Evaluation of Reading Gains Within
Illinois literacy Projects: FY 88. Illinois: Secretary of State, State
Librarian. [see data from this study in Sticht, T. & Armstrong, W. (1994,
February). Adult Literacy in the United States: A Compendium of
Quantitative Data and Interpretive Comments. Washington, DC: National
Institute for Literacy. Online at
http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/adlitUS/adlitus.pdf]

Colvin, R. (1992). A Way With Words. Syracuse, NY: Literacy Volunteers of
America, Inc.

Laubach, F. (1947). Teaching the World to Read. NY: Friendship Press.

Laubach, F. & Laubach, R. (1960). Toward World Literacy: The Each One Teach
One Way. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

Sticht, T. (2005) Seven Pioneering Adult Literacy Educators in the History
of Teaching Reading With Adults in the United States. [see this report for
the other references included in this note. Online at
http://www.nald.ca/library/research/sticht/feb05/seven.pdf]

Thomas G. Sticht
International Consultant in Adult Education
Email: tsticht at aznet.net