encrypting a formal and paradigmatic symbolic system.
Whole-Language has had and still has its detractors, but, if one looks at their pronouncements closely, one finds that the objections are not about the philosophical and even pedagogical approaches of Whole-Language; rather, they concern one or the other of the innumerable varieties and styles of teaching which are often infused with inappropriate didactic techniques. Indeed, Whole-Language allows wide discretion of didactics within the pedagogical philosophy it embraces.
If Whole-Language seems to work rather well in the teaching of L1 at the elementary school level (as well as at home), why would it act differently with L2? Actually, there is only one difference between Whole-Language learning of L1 and of L2, viz. the difference in the authenticity of the communicative contexts. If a native speaker of English learns English reading through English books which deal essentially with environmental sit
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