Afterword: SFL, theoretical pluralism and content and language integration at the levels of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment

ABSTRACT

This article is an afterword to the special issue on social-semiotic and systemic functional approaches to content and language-integrated learning in bilingual/multilingual education. It provides a conceptual overview of the contributions of each of the six articles. It highlights the theoretical pluralism which allows SFL to be combined with a range of other perspectives from applied linguistics and education, to throw light on content and language integration across a wide range of bilingual/multilingual education settings. In particular, the afterword focuses on how SFL and other compatible perspectives allow for a deeper understanding of content and language integration in three educational domains: curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. The afterword also highlights the potential of the use of SFL as a key part of the knowledge base for teachers in bilingual/multilingual education programmes, and suggests ways in which the findings from the studies can be incorporated in teacher education and professional development at each of the levels of curriculum, pedagogy and assessment.

KEYWORDS:

• Content and language-integrated learning (CLIL)
• systemic functional linguistics
• social-semiotic perspective

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Tom Morton

Tom Morton is Beatriz Galindo Distinguished Researcher in the Department of English Studies, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain, where he is a member of the UAM-CLIL research group. His research interests include classroom interaction in content and language integrated learning (CLIL) and English-medium instruction (EMI) contexts, and teacher knowledge and identity in TESOL and bilingual education.