Grammar for Young Learners. Gordon Lewis

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      Gordon Lewis, Hans Mol

      GRAMMAR FOR YOUNG LEARNERS

      Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

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      First published 2009

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      ISBN: 978 0 19 442589 6

      Printed in Spain by Orymu S.A.

      ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

      Cover illustrations courtesy of: Chris Pavely

      All illustrations by Chris Pavely saving those on p68 by Mark Duffin (courtesy Department of Transport)

      Origami photos on page 143 by Gemma Campbell.

      p 3: Kenna Bourke. Teaching Grammar to Young Learners. © Oxford University Press 2005.

      p 3: Michael Swan. Grammar. Oxford Introductions to Applied Linguists © Oxford University Press 2005.

      The authors would like to thank all pupils and all colleagues who have voluntarily or involuntarily been exposed to, and inspired so many of, the activities in these books during years of teaching and writing.

      The authors and series editor

      Gordon Lewis has a BSc in Languages and Linguistics and an MSc in International Policy Studies. In 1991 he founded the Children’s Language School in Berlin, which was sold to Berlitz in 1999. From 1999 to 2001 he was Director of Instructor Training and Development for Berlitz Kids Germany and developed similar programmes for Berlitz Kids in Princeton, New Jersey. From 2004 to 2008 he was Director of Product Development for Kaplan English Programs in New York. He is currently Director of English Language Programs, Laureate Higher Education, and is also on the committee of the IATEFL Young Learners Special Interest Group where he works as co-coordinator for events. He is the author of Games for Children and The Internet and Young Learners, both in this series, and Teenagers in the Resource Books for Teachers series.

      Hans Mol has an MA in English Language and Linguistics, and has worked as a teacher, trainer, and materials writer for more than 25 years in primary, secondary, and tertiary education. He is on the committee of IATEFL’s Young Learners and Teenagers Special Interest Groups and is the author of a large number of course books, workbooks, and supplementary resources aimed at English learners of a wide range of ages and levels. He frequently contributes to online teacher’s resources such as OnestopEnglish and Macmillan English Campus, and also writes and produces songs and music for English language learners for children, teens, and adults (Supasongs). He is currently working on new young learners materials (Take Shape) and, with Gordon Lewis, he is preparing a new CLIL series for young learners and teens. For more information see www.connexxions.com.auwww.connexxions.com.au.

      Alan Maley worked for the British Council from 1966 to 1988, serving as English Language Officer in Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, and China, and as Regional Representative in South India (Madras). From 1988 to 1993 he was Director-General of the Bell Educational Trust, Cambridge. From 1993 to 1998 he was Senior Fellow in the Department of English Language and Literature of the National University of Singapore, and from 1998 to 2003 he was Director of the graduate programme at Assumption University, Bangkok. He is currently a freelance consultant. Among his publications are Literature (in this series), BeyondWords, Sounds Interesting, Sounds Intriguing, Words, Variations on a Theme, and Drama Techniques in Language Learning (all with Alan Duff), The Mind’s Eye (with Françoise Grellet and Alan Duff), Learning to Listen, and Poem into Poem (with Sandra Moulding), Short and Sweet, and The Language Teacher’s Voice.

      Foreword

      There are few topics which arouse more heated and passionate debate than grammar. And the debate extends even to young learners, with some advocating the necessity of inculcating grammatical concepts and rules with this age group, and others equally resistant to such practices.

      The authors of this book take a middle passage between the shoals of grammatical prescriptivism and of communicative over-indulgence. They take the view that meaning will always be primary at this level, so that grammar will be integral to activities rather than taught as a separate area. The extent to which grammar is made explicit will also clearly depend on factors such as age and cognitive maturity within an age range from 6 to 14.

      Their aims are threefold: to enable learners to express themselves as clearly as possible in English, to increase their grammatical accuracy, and to raise awareness of grammatical features – rather than to teach explicit rules.

      They do this by offering a rich variety of activities, many of which are game-like in nature, but all of which are based on the most common essential grammatical features of English. The activities take account of the learning style preferences of the learners, and are flagged for physical, aural, spatial, and verbal emphases. This is particularly important for younger learners, who often have a preference for activities involving movement and the manipulation of objects.

      Those teachers who have already used other books in this series by Gordon Lewis will not be disappointed in this collection, written in collaboration with Hans Mol, who brings his own long and extensive experience of working with younger learners to bear. Teachers of younger learners will find this an invaluable addition to the Young Learners titles in this series.

      Alan Maley

      Introduction

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