ABSTRACT

This chapter deals with the eight main word classes, sometimes referred as 'parts of speech': nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, determiners, conjunctions and pronouns. The chapter provides suggestion to primary teachers. Since many words don't sit neatly in one single word class, it's important to teach words in context rather than through decontextualised exercises. Wherever possible, it's best to make use of opportunities to explore the way words are used in high-quality texts as part of the reading curriculum, and in children's own writing. When introducing word classes to younger children, the primary teachers might give them a handful of words, colour-coded according to word class, and ask them to use them to make as many phrases or sentences as they can. There are opportunities to teach older pupils how to build on knowledge by using nouns for greater precision when writing in a more formal style, or by using adverbs to indicate a writer's stance.