| Whole language has impacted the reading and writing instruction of young children and has caused some teachers to significantly change their instructional practices. Some educators, however, have believed that the position taken by whole language enthusiasts against systematic skills instruction, and the teaching of phonics and the rules of the written language has been ill-advised, especially for first-grade children. Balanced Reading Instruction (BRI), which would include systematic skills instruction and connected text reading using trade books, basals, or both, has been proposed as the rationale alternative to whole language.;The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of an eclectic instructional approach to a modified whole language approach on the reading comprehension and writing skills of first-grade students. The eclectic approach involved a basal reader and an integrated language arts program with systematic direct phonics instruction (Sing, Spell, Read, & Write, Dickson, 1984); whereas, the modified whole language approach involved whole language strategies and routines, as well as systematic direct phonics instruction (The Writing Road to Reading, Spalding & Spalding, 1990).;A 1 x 2 design which consisted of two experimental groups, eclectic and modified whole language, was selected for the study. Subjects were 45 females and 52 males in four intact public school first-grade classrooms. An analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to adjust for any intact group mean differences. The Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, Level R, Form K and the University of Mississippi Writing Assessment Instrument were used as covariates, and the Gates-MacGinitie Reading Tests, Level 1, Form K and the University of Mississippi Writing Assessment Instrument were used as the dependent variables. The independent variable was instructional approach.;The eclectic approach resulted in statistically significant higher girls' and boys' writing skills scores than the modified whole language approach. Effect sizes independent of sample size indicated an educationally significant effect size favoring the eclectic approach over the modified whole language approach for boys' writing skills over girls' writing skills. The different types of instructional approaches resulted in an equivalent statistical effect on the reading comprehension of both subgroups, girls and boys. |
