The promotion of assessment for learning (AfL), with scoring rubrics as one of the most important tools, is an international trend. A well-developed scoring rubric not only accurately reflects students' learning performance but also guides them towards achieving learning goals. In 2010, following the recommendations made in the Mother Tongue Languages Review Committee Report, primary teachers in Singapore began to develop their own school-based scoring rubrics for Chinese language. The author of this paper analyses a sample of 41 scoring rubrics developed by Chinese language teachers from 11 primary schools and finds that there are quite a number of problems with the rubrics. The author observes that while educators in Singapore have followed the trend of AfL, there is a need for reforms in assessment. More supports in various forms, such as training, discussion, lesson observation, and school-based experience sharing, should be provided in order to enhance teacher professional development in language assessment.

Keywords: Assessment for learning, scoring rubrics, problems and resolutions, strategies of improvement

This paper demonstrates that there are three main features in Confucius's instructional language, which are summarised to be a) succinct and vivid, b) elicitive and logical, and c) instructive and motivational. The first feature exhibits further in three aspects, namely, concise colloquialism, wittiness and humour, and expressiveness through figurative use of language. The second feature exhibits in mastery of elicitive questions, subtle use of personal experience, and flawless logic. The third feature exhibits in sound evaluation through differentiated teaching, setting up of good examples and standards to motivate learners, and refinement of instructional language to enhance educational purpose.

Keywords: instructional language, succinct and vivid, elicitive and logical, instructive and motivational

This paper describes and explicates the discourse semantics and functions of a common Chinese adverb "dangran (当然)". It examines the various modes of discourse semantics of the word "dangran" and investigates its semantics functions of affirmation, emphasis, reverse complement-explanation and disjunctive. The study finds that the discourse semantics of "dangran" changes with the syntactic position, and its discourse function also changes with the syntactic position. The expansion of the discourse function of "dangran" follows a trajectory from interpersonal-modal function via discourse cohesive function to discourse marker function.

Keywords: "dangran", discourse semantics, discourse function, interpersonal function, cohesion function

This study begins with a theoretical framework, following by a discussion on two sets of Singapore Secondary Level textbooks (i.e., Secondary Level Chinese Language and Advanced Secondary Level Chinese Language), focusing on their unit arrangement, compilation and selection system. It continues with some suggestions before the conclusion. The findings of this study can serve as references for Chinese textbook researchers, compilers, examiners and decision makers when compiling textbooks. The theoretical framework is drawn from system theory, cognitive theory, subject theory, ability construction theory and curriculum theory. The result of this study shows that neither the individual sample article teaching mode adopted by Secondary Level Chinese Language nor genre-unit mode adopted by Advanced Secondary Level Chinese Language is the appropriate way for arranging textbook units. In terms of texts compilation and selection, units in Secondary Level Chinese Language do not have a smooth transition and connection. Furthermore, the arrangements of language ability and skills are rather random. The Advanced Secondary Level Chinese Language has its own deficiencies. Firstly, the language ability elements in this set of textbooks are not complete. Secondly, the sequence of unit arrangement also has shortcomings. Evidences have shown that the linear logic sequence is not well-organized because what students have learned in a unit cannot be fully used in the coming unit. Thirdly, the three horizontally arranged teaching formats are not comprehensive because they fail to a) use intensive reading to develop students' advance learning ability, b) use guided learning to explore students' reading ability under teacher's guidance, and c) use self-reading and self-assessment to develop students' self-learning competence. The author of this study suggests that learning units should be arranged according to language abilities and skills. He gives some suggestions on system construction and ends with some samples.

Keywords: Singapore, secondary level Chinese language, textbook, compilation and selection system

Halliday's (1985) systematic functional linguistics (SFL) considers language as a social semiotic system and takes linguistics function as the central organizing dimension. In this study, transitivity is used to analyze sentences constructed in Singapore students' writings. Transitivity analysis, which is based on the process, participants and circumstances, informs us about the sentence types and the richness of the sentences constructed. The subjects of this study are two groups of Primary One students. One group is composed of 22 students from Chinese-speaking families (CL students), while another is composed of 26 students from English-speaking families (EL students). A total number of 338 sentences composed by these students are analyzed. Results show that both groups can use three types of processes, namely material, psychological and relational ones. CL students have also produced behavioral and verbal types of process. In the circumstances analysis, CL students have produced sentences that consist of more circumstances types, as compared to their counterparts. Correlations conducted between dominance of Chinese in the students' home language and the transitivity analysis find that they are significantly correlated. The paper concludes that CL students write more sentence types and richer sentences as compared to their counterparts. It is thus believed that students' daily spoken language is related to their written sentences, and should be emphasized, if we aim to increase the richness of their sentences. It is also believed that teaching and learning activities can be designed to meet the different needs of students of different backgrounds and that further researches of this nature may provide more information for reference in future curriculum design.

Keywords: transitivity, process, circumstances, students with Chinese as the home language (CL students), students with English as the home language (EL students)

There are many non-Chinese speaking students in Hong Kong who stay there for a long period of time. Learning Chinese will help them integrate into the Hong Kong society and learn more about Hong Kong. However, with Cantonese as the medium of instruction and the complex form of Chinese characters for the written texts, it is quite challenging for Hong Kong teachers to teach non-Chinese speaking students, who learn Chinese as their second language. To teach such group of students more effectively, the paper suggests a number of immersion teaching strategies, such as the making use of the environment, a real-life situational thematic approach and related activities, extensive reading, immersion assessment and the ingenious use of classroom language.

Keywords: immersion teaching, non-Chinese speaking students, language environment, second language