Developing the use of grammar
Providing a model, rather than asking for corrections
Child: 'He come house'.
Adult: 'He came to your house, did he?'
Child: 'Yes'.
Child: 'He ran in the marathon and he was very ill, yeah' [vigorous nod]
Adult: 'He ran although he was ill? Or did it make him ill?'
These adult responses give a strong reinforcement of more mature grammar, but at the same time, maintain the conversation: the adult is also checking his/her understanding of the child's meaning. The message is that speech is intended to convey meaning to someone else and that grammar is an important part of this process, but not the only one.
Making grammatical knowledge explicit
As adults, we may think we know little about grammar, but we all know that 'the little red train' is 'correct', and 'the red little train' is not - or at the least, sounds wrong. Eventually, children's use of grammar needs to become fluent and automatic, but it may be helpful to raise their awareness of grammatical structure.
Group writing allows for discussion about grammar, for example, deciding whether to say 'the man runs' or 'the man ran'. Some children may recognise the past tense form, even if they do not yet use it consistently. For others, peer models and group decisions may help raise their grammatical awareness.
Group/individual focus
In order to improve their own use of grammar, children need to know and hear 'the next step on'. Where there is a discrepancy between the language levels of the class and those of an individual child, it will be helpful for adults to sometimes simplify the language of the classroom and provide opportunities for differentiated story times.
Sentence structures can most easily be taught directly by the use of written forms as this allows for discussion.
ICT programmes, such as Clicker, support this. Children should be encouraged to decide whether grammar is 'correct', but may need guidance in making this decision.