ABSTRACT
Teaching spoken language has often been seen as more tricky than teaching reading or writing. Since speech is the basis on which literacy is founded, it is clear that spoken language has wide application. It suggests the potential to draw on a wide, diverse and flexible repertoire as well as indicating the social, cultural and individual nature of discourse. Standard English is just one dialect of English. It is the form of English widely accepted as the ‘correct’ form and is most usually applied to written forms of language and formal speaking. The aim of the national curriculum is that everyone should be able to use Standard English as needed in writing and in relatively formal speaking. Verb forms are important in Standard English, particularly the correct use of the past tense of the verbs ‘to do’ and ‘to be’.
