ABSTRACT

The culmination of more than a decade of research, this compelling volume offers a fresh approach for applying functional linguistics to assess student performance, to inform the teaching and learning of Chinese and to design curriculum and teaching materials. Documenting authentic systemic functional linguistics (SFL) studies in researching and teaching Chinese as a first or second language, this research is set in the multilingual settings of Hong Kong and Australia. The experiences of SFL and genre teaching in English have been well demonstrated as valid, viable and practical in different contexts; however this volume covers the relatively new domain of research into the applications of SFL to the teaching of Chinese. Using SFL as the research framework, the authors cover three major areas in Chinese language education: effective pedagogies, curriculum and material design, and text analysis. Covering major local curriculum reforms and the rapid growth of International Baccalaureate programmes worldwide, this book will be of interest to linguists, language teachers and teacher educators and those involved in the teaching and learning of Chinese around the world.

chapter 1|6 pages

Introduction

part I|107 pages

Research on pedagogy

chapter 3|13 pages

A social semiotic perspective on language teaching

Why context matters

part II|78 pages

Research on teaching materials

part III|96 pages

Research on text analysis

chapter 12|25 pages

Performance of students of diverse abilities on the Chinese integrated language skills

From six students’ written performance on Chinese integrated language skills in Hong Kong public examination

chapter 15|24 pages

A systemic functional analysis of second language explanatory writing

A possible stance for writing assessment