In this stimulating collection of specially commissioned essays, teachers and researchers in the forefront of thinking in this area consider both the controversies and the day-to-day realities of teaching primary English. The book's four sections reflect the organisation of the National Curriculum for English: Speaking and Listening, Reading, Writing, with a final section on issues that confront the teacher across the English curriculum. Particular attention is paid to assessment within the three strands of the National Curriculum and, throughout, the contributors combine the latest research with practical suggestions about what it means for the teacher in the classroom. Teaching Primary English takes up and develops the themes of David Wray and Jane Medwell's very successful Literacy and Language in the Primary Years. Students, teachers and everyone with an interest in how children acquire the skills of literacy will want to read it.

David Wray is Senior Lecturer in Education at the University of Exeter. Jane Medwell is Lecturer in Education at the College of St Mark and Sr John, Plymouth.