ABSTRACT
The three words ‘English’, ‘Language’ and ‘Literacy’ in the title of this book are significant because they are central to many of the recent debates that have raged about the teaching of English in primary schools. During the 1970s and 1980s the teaching of ‘language’ was the focus. The job of primary schools was to foster the development of children’s language through reading, writing and, to a lesser extent, talking. This focus included the need to support multilingual children’s development in English and other languages. The teachers who coordinated the subject were known as ‘language coordinators’. The teaching of language in primary schools was seen as different in many respects from the teaching of English that secondary schools carried out.
