Language play occurs when people manipulate language in some way, often for fun and always for impact. Alliteration, unexpected vocabulary, phrases that deliberately provoke thought each have impact and appear in all types of writing, whether factual, literary or persuasive. Language play is evident throughout life too: from simple word repetition…

Tom Nicholson and Sue Dymock analysed research on teaching writing to identify the skills students need to write for impact. Their approach is based on a simple view of writing: it is ideas presented well. The two volumes of this book work together to explain and show teachers how to teach students these essential writing skills. Nicholson and…

"English Grammar and Teaching Strategies" aims to demystify grammar and equip any teacher to teach it in the classroom. Carefully set out for ease of reference, this book covers every aspect of grammar, from nouns, adjectives and verbs to punctuation and prepositions. Each grammatical term is clearly defined and accompanied by varieties…

A sampling of over 100 ideas submitted by elementary school teachers at the Idea Exchange at the annual meetings of the National Council of Teachers of English are contained in this collection of teaching tips. The first chapter, "Getting to Know Each Other," includes games to help students learn each other's names, directions for making a…

Sixteen children in five different classrooms in the same, small, rural-suburban school in New Hampshire were observed for 2 years to document what primary children did when they wrote. Eight of the children were observed from age 6 through 7, and eight from 8 through 9. Three researchers were on-site in classrooms 4 days out of 5 for the 2-year…

Continuing its emphasis on a student- and response-centered approach to literature-based teaching in today's culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms, this third edition discusses these principles not only through explanation, but through examples of real teachers in real classrooms involved in the actual implementation of these ideas. The…

The aim of this book is to provide a compromise between past and present theories of language teaching and learning. The book is organized into six main parts. In the first part, the author highlights the strengths and weaknesses of both the skills-based approach and the whole-language approach. He then presents a theory that emphasizes the…