A functional approach to integrated assessment of teacher support and student discourse development in an elementary Chinese program

Abstract How can foreign language education integrate the learning of language with learning of content, and culture on a systematic basis, when assessment typically focuses on language in isolation from meaning? Examining developmental data gathered over a three-year period from elementary students in a Chinese program in North America, we explore the integrated assessment of teacher support and student discourse development. We show how systemic functional linguistics (SFL) offers a theory of language and learning that incorporates content, and culture and provides theory and analysis tools for integrated assessment of teaching and learning.