[dvhh]

I did some research and Wikipedia pointed to the whole language method (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whole_language) as opposed to the phonics method (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phonics) which focus more on how words are composed from syllables.

As a non expert, my analysis would be reduced to :

- whole word would focus of growing the list of words you would be able to recognize. - phonics focus on the link between speaking and reading, which I guess could build up self confidence for being more eloquent, and in my opinion would help with learning foreign languages.