El todo y las partesuna crítica a las propuestas del lenguaje integrado

Abstract

In this pages a critical revision is made of some of the didactic stream�s assumptions on reading called Whole Language. Basically, three aspects are questioned. The first one is that whole language underestimates the role of the more specific components of written language (that is, the operations involved in word recognition). Consequently, whole language underestimates the need of a specific formative experience for the consolidation of these skills, relying everything on the students� participation in relevant communicative experiences. Finally, and assuming an unjustified parallelism between oral and written language�s acquisition, the magnitude of the challenge is not taken into account, challenge greatly unusual on the other hand, which means the universalization of an extraordinarily complex ability�s full control. The meaning of this criticism is not to deny the value of its didactic principles themselves, specially their emphasis in linking skills� acquisition to the use of those skills, but to point out that the development of these ideas requires also to give ground to the consolidation of specific skills with all the complication that would arise from it. Therefore, it is not so much a matter of denying the need to link skill�s use and consolidation as it is of pointing out the complexity that union involves, a greater complexity than is inferred from the whole language�s proposals. Hence the name of this article: the whole and the parts. The final consequence is therefore that we look for ways of solving such complexity without giving up those motivating ideas the propositions criticized entail