Language Education in the Primary Years

Description

Language Education in the Primary Years provides a coherent and structured account of language and learning and of language pedagogy using a functional grammar approach. It provides a metalanguage essential for the preparation of teachers of English language in the primary years and appropriate for practising educators developing their own teaching programs. The book considers contemporary debates such as 'process versus product' and 'phonic versus whole language', and addresses all important topics including oral language in the classroom, grammatical differences between speech and writing, visual literacy, the impact of technology, the teaching of spelling, models of grammar, and language planning and assessment. The overriding premise of this cumulative work is that a functional grammar provides a structured and systematic way to teach knowledge about language while fostering growth and independence in language use.

Frances Christie is Emeritus Professor of Language and Literacy Education, University of Melbourne, and Honorary Professor of Education, University of Sydney. She has authored, edited and co-authored a number of books in writing development, discourse analysis and educational linguistics.

"'... this is a text well suited to university students beginning their study of language and literacy education in the primary school. It engages readers in the historical contextualisation of current issues in the field, as well as dealing with the key theoretical and practical professional issues primary teacher education students need to understand. A distinctive strength of this book is its functional sociolinguistic perspective on language and literacy education in the primary years, incorporating systematic, explicit knowledge of language description as a resource for meaning.' - Len Unsworth, Professor in English and Literacies Education, School of Education, University of New England"