Julie Scanlon Angela Wilson

Teaching children to develop as language users is one of the most important tasks of a primary school teacher. However, many trainee teachers begin their careers with a low knowledge base.

Language Knowledge for Primary Teachers is the reader friendly guide designed to address this. This book provides a clear explanation of the knowledge and understanding required by teachers to implement the objectives of the National Curriculum for English. It reveals how an explicit knowledge of language can enrich their own and their children’s spoken English. It will give teachers confidence in developing children’s enjoyment and comprehension of reading and writing so children can use their language skills in the real world.
Updated to include references to the new curriculum, this book explores:



The importance of subject knowledge in supporting children in language and literacy;


Language knowledge within the context of authentic and meaningful texts, from fiction to ‘Facebook’;


The links between subject knowledge and real teaching situations;


New areas on talk and dialogic learning;


Increased emphasis on ICT and cross-curricular study.


This book will appeal to all trainee and newly qualified teachers needing to achieve both the demands of subject knowledge for Qualified Teacher Status, and a firm understanding of the expectations of the National Curriculum for English.

Angela Wilson is former Senior Lecturer in Education at the North East Wales Institute of Higher Education, now Glyndwr University.

Julie Scanlon is Senior Lecturer in Primary English at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Contents Acknowledgements Introduction Part One: The background to language knowledge 1. Why do primary teachers need language knowledge? 2. A framework for considering language knowledge 3. Building on preschool children’s language knowledge Part Two: Texts, sentences and words 4. Some characteristics of texts 5. Making sense of texts 6. What big teeth you have, grammar! 7. Sentence structure: phrases and clauses 8. Words, words, words Part Three: Applying language knowledge 9. Applying text, sentence and word level knowledge to fictional texts and poetry 10. Applying text, sentence and word level knowledge to non-fiction texts 11. Applying text, sentence and word level knowledge to non-book and electronic texts 12. Applying text, sentence and word level knowledge to digital communications 13. Conclusion Commentaries Bibliography Index