Language for Life: Where Linguistics Meets Teaching

This new edition of the bestselling Language for Life shows how language can be mastered by children and how what they have learned can be carried throughout their lives.

An indispensable guidebook for teachers, it delivers explicit, step-by-step English language instruction via lessons in syntax, grammar, morphology, etymology, and punctuation, and arms students with the mental skill of thinking about language. This in turn helps children learn much more easily from the language around them.

New features for this edition include:

• an increased focus on the relationship between knowledge of parts of speech and morphology to proficiency as a writer
• creating a metalanguage between student and teacher that encourages clear two-way feedback
• an increased focus on knowledge-building using factual topics as exemplars.

Language for Life is a proven programme that is built upon years of experience. Lyn Stone’s pragmatic and modern approach is supported by feedback from teachers and students alike who have attended her numerous classes and workshops. This book helps teachers: learn more about language structure, guide the development of skills to write accurately and in increasing volume, and support the emergence of clear and organised thinking for writing.

Brimming with vital information suitable for both basic and advanced level students, this book is an essential tool for all teachers wishing to give their students the best preparation possible to meet the demands of the modern world. Photocopiable worksheets throughout the book put teachers in the position of linguistic expert, guiding students through an enriching journey of language discovery and creativity.

Table of Contents

Front Matter

• List of figures
• Acknowledgements
• Foreword
• How to use this book

Body

1. Nouns: Syntactic Royalty
2. Determiners: Noun Heralds
3. Pronouns: Syntactic Stunt Doubles
4. Verbs: The Movers and Shakers
5. Agreement
6. Tense
7. Adjectives: Descriptive Noun-Servants
8. Adverbs: The Flying Squad
9. Prepositions: Noun Connectors
10. Conjunctions: All-Round Joiners
11. Phrases
12. Clauses
13. Sentences
14. Dictionaries
15. Punctuation
16. Morphology Introduction
17. Prefixes
18. Bases
19. Suffixes
20. Figurative Language
21. Language Myths
22. Language Change

Appendices

• Appendix 1 - Grammar, syntax, and morphology suggested scope and sequence
• Appendix 2 - A handy base element list
• Appendix 3 - Resources for everyone

Bibliography

Index

"The hallmark of Lyn Stone’s writing and presentations is her understanding of her audience and their needs. This new edition of Language for Life builds on the strong foundations laid by its predecessor and will make it even easier for teachers to overcome the daunting burden of having to teach concepts which in the majority of cases, they did not learn themselves, either at school or at university. Lyn understands what teachers need to understand and tells the story of language and its idiosyncrasies in ways that will boost teacher capacity, and ultimately, student achievement."
- Professor Pamela Snow, La Trobe University, Australia