ABSTRACT
I chose this title for Chapter 6 because many people seem to be afraid of grammar, seeing it as a set of rules waiting to catch them out. I want to persuade you that grammar should rather be seen as a resource, serving writers’ and speakers’ purposes as they struggle to express meanings in the texts they are creating. The next two chapters will not turn you into an expert on English grammar, but I hope that they will at least begin to make clear what a knowledge of grammar has to offer to primary teachers, and therefore to the children in their classes. In the chapter notes I have listed some useful books to help you to build on the information here.1
