Literacy and language in the primary years

Primary school children must now demonstrate confident and convincing skills in speaking, listening, writing and reading. How are their teachers to achieve this? In this book, David Wray and Jane Medwell provide a set of strategies for the teacher to understand literacy development, to promote these essential skills in collaboration with their pupils and to create a classroom environment in which talk and literacy are central. The book is written not only in the context of the nationally-prescribed UK curriculum, but also in response to other developments in language and literacy research - particularly the renewed emphasis on the collaborative, social context of learning and the whole language approach which stresses the interlinking of reading, writing, speaking and listening processes. Included are chapters on the phenomenon of language, the role of stories, literacy across the curriculum, new technology and assessment. Each chapter is linked to a component of the National Curriculum Programme.