Phonics vs. Whole Language

• Phonics is considered a “bottom-up approach” where students try and decode the meaning of a text. Once students learn the basic skills, they are able to read a wide variety of children’s novels (Reyner, 2008, para. 6).  
• Phonics is considered a behaviorist approach that emphasizes the importance of sounding out words based on spelling (Reyner, 2008, para. 8). 
•  Whole language is considered a “top-down approach” where students use prior knowledge to interpret the meaning of what they are reading (Reyner, 2008, para. 10).
• Whole language is based on the constructivist learning theory where the meaning of texts is emphasized and phonics instruction becomes part of the whole language classroom (Reyner, 2008, para. 9).

Reading Wars: Phonics v. Whole Language