Language Education in the Primary Years provides a coherent and structured account of language and learning and of language pedagogy using a functional grammar approach. It provides a metalanguage essential for the preparation of teachers of English language in the primary years and appropriate for practising educators developing their own teaching programs. The book considers contemporary debates such as 'process versus product' and 'phonic versus whole language', and addresses all important topics including oral language in the classroom, grammatical differences between speech and writing, visual literacy, the impact of technology, the teaching of spelling, models of grammar, and language planning and assessment. The overriding premise of this cumulative work is that a functional grammar provides a structured and systematic way to teach knowledge about language while fostering growth and independence in language use.