Purist whole-language advocates, on the other hand, believe that reading is as natural as speaking. The best way to teach reading, they say, is to expose children to stories they will want to read, and let them figure out words from their context in the sentence or story, guessing if necessary. Sooner or later, they will get it right. But as a group of articles in the Summer 1995 issue of American Educator makes clear, children learn best in a system that combines aspects of phonics and whole language. Researchers have exploded the whole-language contention that children learn to read as naturally as they learn to speak.
Some children learn without being given systematic, explicit instruction in sounding out words.
However, researchers stress that, while knowing how to decode is essential, it is not enough. They agree with whole-language advocates that teachers must also expose their students to materials the youngsters are eager to read. Otherwise, youngsters may have little interest in reading, probably won't read much, and will never get enough practice to be skilled readers. That hasn't happened. Instead, the teaching of reading has become an ideological football.