Whole language and fluency first applications: Ideas that work

[[abstract]]"The tenn whole language. now widely used among educators who mayor may not have a good grasp of its meaning, often evokes mixed feelings at both ends of the spectnun. Essentially a set of beliefs and a perspective about language and language development, the whole language philosophy in the past several years has evolved out of Ll literacy instruction into the teaching of ESLIEFL at different levels and settings. It has generated an array of classroom practices, techniques, and instructional materials under its label. One such practice is fluency first, a whole-language based approach which has been successfully applied in several ESL programs in North America. To varying extent, the panelists in this session have utilized whole language and fluency first principles in their classrooms ranging from elementary school, junior college, to university. To begin the discussion, the panel leader will give an overview of the principles underlying whole language and fluency first. Then the panelists will in turn describe in depth their experiences in applying these ideas in different educational settings, focusing on both areas of success and failure in the process of implementation. To conclude, implications drawn from the experiences will be provided in hopes of encouraging future applications of whole language and fluency first in the English classrooms in Taiwan. The following report summarizes principles fundamental to whole language and fluency first. It lists successful classroom tasks/activities that promote reading/writing fluency and overall language abilities. A sample lesson incorporating WL principles is included.[[sponsorship]]中華民國英語文教師學會; 臺灣師範大學英語系[[notice]]補正完畢[[conferencetype]]國際[[conferencedate]]19981113~19981115[[iscallforpapers]]Y[[conferencelocation]]臺灣, 臺北