The grammar of a language is really just the patterns (or order) of words, phrases
and clauses that can be used to make sense.
If we use the correct order, we can be understood; if not, we will find
it hard to communicate. Children pick
this up at a very early age. They hear
speech and start to make sense of the structure of our language long before
they learn to read and write. As soon as
your child starts to understand you when you speak and starts to use words in
order to communicate with you, they are using the rules of English
grammar. Of course, they don’t understand that they are
using rules; they are just picking up the patterns in the language
subconsciously and are rewarded in this learning by the communication with
others that it enables.
We often think of English as having a subject (S), verb (V), object (O) word order. (Subjects, verbs and objects are not the only sentence elements, but we will consider the others later.) The
subject in this structure is the main person, object or place we are
considering: who or what the sentence is about.
The verb is the action or state of being/having in the sentence. Not all sentences have objects but, where
they do, this is the person, object or place affected by the verb. Let's look at some examples.
The boy kicked the ball. The dog chased the cat.
Dad had a cold.
Young
children usually start to focus on the subject: they are concerned with
communicating to you what they are talking about. They may point at something and say the word,
e.g. teddy, car, doggie.
As
their communication improves, they move on to subject and verb:
Baby cry
Mummy gone
Car crashed
In
a short space of time, dependent on the amount of verbal stimulation they
experience, their vocabulary and speaking patterns expand dramatically and
their attempts to speak increasingly conform to the patterns of English
grammar.
However,
when we speak, we don’t speak in sentences, but in a stream of words, phrases
and clauses, often joined together with words such as and, but, then, so, etc. We
use the correct grammar or word order, but we certainly don’t punctuate. Rather, we use body language, expression,
tone and volume to help our listener understand us. And of course, the context is usually shared,
so we easily understand each other. Most
pre-school children are able to communicate very effectively, using the grammar
patterns of our language. Then we send them to school.
To
read and write, children need to learn new skills in order to communicate. They use the same English grammar, but need
to learn the conventions of punctuation so that they can understand and
communicate in a different way. When reading, they can understand something without the author being present; when writing, they need to communicate to a distant audience.
When
children start to write, they once again use basic patterns. They may have more information in their
heads about what they want to write, but focusing on all the technical aspects,
e.g. handwriting, spelling, often interferes with the quality of the
content.
As
they become more comfortable with the process of writing, we need to help them
understand how they can extend sentences to provide additional detail and use
punctuation to help their reader understand what they mean. Using the correct grammatical terminology will
help them to talk about parts of sentences and develop these to improve their
writing.
