THE PROGRESS OF THE WHOLE-LANGUAGE DEBATE

The whole-language framework carries certain strong implications with respect to the appropriate and inappropriate content and conduct of cl assroom instruction. Because a number of these implications are new or controversial, empirical investigations of their relative instruction al efficacy are strongly warranted. On the other hand, advocates of wh ole language have argued that it is properly seen, not as a set of met hods, but as a set of beliefs about teaching and learning as a sociops ycholinguistic process and, further, that within this belief framework , questions about what works more or less well with whom are not merel y unanswerable but logically unaskable. The thesis of this article is that the most controversial positions of the whole-language movement-i ncluding its rejection of the value instructional efficacy studies-der ive from a misguided understanding of cognitive theory.