Hello,

Yes grammar is fundamental. However when teaching young children I prefer to teach grammar through natural absorption rather than through learning rules and dissecting sentences.

To expand on that children learn grammatical structures through frequent listening and through speaking practise with English language games as the main vehicle. Songs, rhymes, stories and short plays are also excellent vehicles for this.

My young pupils learn to speak English without knowing whether the word they are using is the subject or object of a sentence, or that the verb they are using is in the third person singular.

That type of useful knowledge can come later, once it has been learned in their native tongue for a start.

I would be interested to hear other teachers' opinions on a suitable age to start talking about and labelling tenses and such like. I tend to start mentioning these things with pupils aged 13 and upwards.

Shelley Vernon
For an article on how to teach children grammar with games please see www.teachingenglishgames.com/dirindex.htm