A games-based pedagogical approach to developing students' knowledge about language in the early years of primary schooling is the focus of this study. New perspectives about the potential for teaching and learning about grammar to support students' development as expert users of language have emerged in recent literature and these studies have offered insights into how educators might unlock this potential in their classrooms. Recognising the potential of knowledge about grammar to support language and literature development has been aligned with the use in the classroom of a more functionally-oriented pedagogical grammar, one derived from M.A.K Halliday's systemic functional linguistics.
Recent curriculum changes in Anglophone countries, including Australia, have foregrounded explicit functionally-oriented grammar instruction. To enact this aspect of the curriculum effectively, teachers, particularly those working with very young students, need more knowledge about grammar and more pedagogical 'know-how'. To contribute to building this 'know-how', the study presented in this thesis explores the use of games-based pedagogy to teach young students about grammar. Specifically, the affordances of dialogic pedagogy, metalinguistic understanding and multimodality were applied to the design of grammar games to teach Year 1 students about clause structure and the functional parts of the clause. In this single embedded case study, the students were video-recorded as they played the games. This enabled an analysis of the students' use of multiple semiotic resources, including gestural and dialogic interaction, colour and movement, to reveal the complex interplay between interactive mediating tools and interactions in games purposefully designed to support these young students learning about grammar.
The study findings suggest that the type of student dialogic interaction that supports learning can emerge when students are engaged in games-based learning activities. Moreover, this kind of student dialogic interaction, scaffolded by multiple semiotic resources, can support young students' gradual development of knowledge about language and their developing metalinguistic understanding. A refined framework for how the young students in this study appeared to develop their metalinguistic understanding is proposed. The thesis suggests that further research into the possibilities afforded by a games-based approach to developing students' knowledge about language is warranted.