Riding the Pendulum: A Rejoinder to Schickedanz and McGee and Lomax

Abstract

Since we wrote our paper (Stahl & Miller, 1989), the popularity of whole language approaches has increased. Yet, there has been little additional research evidence on the effects of whole language to support the widespread implementation of these methods. This paper suggests that the process of getting a program as widely and quickly implemented leads to politicization of the movement, which, in turn, leads to exaggerations of small differences and an excessive reliance on beliefs. It is still suggested that language experience and whole language approaches in first grade, at least, are not well supported by available research and that language experience/whole language approaches might be more useful in kindergarten for developing children’s initial concepts of the functions of reading. This paper proposes that discussions of initial reading instruction expand beyond simple dichotomies.