Visual Grammar: Multimedia for Grammar and Spelling Instruction in Primary Education

Several European languages, in particular Dutch and French, employ orthographies with syntax-sensitive spelling rules that can be applied correctly only by writers who are able to produce explicit representations of sentence structure. Writing instruction in schools where these languages are taught, is impossible without a fair amount of grammatical terminology. This necessitates elementary grammar courses already in the higher grades of primary education. However, many students fail to attain the minimum level of grammatical understanding needed to spell correctly. Exploiting the visualization, interaction, and knowledge access opportunities offered by multimedia technology can remedy this situation.