Whole language is a philosophy of literacy instruction that emphasizes making meaning from text and expressing ideas in writing. It takes a constructivist approach where students build their own understanding from experiences. Key principles include a focus on meaning over decoding, accepting different learner needs, teaching skills in context rather than isolation, and assessing individual growth. The whole language approach grew out of Chomsky's theory of language acquisition and emphasizes reading as a psycholinguistic guessing game relying on holistic word examination rather than strict phonics rules.