Part 1 Knowledge about language - some key issues: what do we mean by knowledge about language?, John Richmond; magic words - helping young children to develop their knowledge about language, Alison Sealey; books in the classroom and knowledge about language, Mike Taylor; language study at key stage 3, George Keith; the new grammar teaching, Ronald Carter; critical language awareness in action, Roz Ivanic. Part 2 Language and the curriculum: the development of initial literacy, Yetta Goodman; what do we know about reading that helps us teach?, Margaret Meek; reader, writer, text, Nick Jones; what Katy knows about language, Heather Lyons; on literacy and gender, Janet White; rocks in the head - children and the language of geology, Bev Derewianka; grammatical differentiation between speech and writing in children aged eight to 12, Katharine Perera; young children's writing - from spoken to written genre, Fran Christie; the rights of bilingual children, Helen Savva; English teachers and the history of English, Pat and Mike O'Rourke.