Johnny is a 7th grade student who demonstrates morphosyntax deficits. Which type of discourse would yield the most meaningful and educationally relevant data?

• A. Narrative
• B. Pragmatic
• C. Expository
• D. Conversation

Answer: (C)

Expository discourse targets the language students use to explain, inform, and describe ideas in a structured, academic way, which places strong demands on morphosyntax. In this mode, Johnny would be expected to produce well-formed, complex sentences, maintain tense and subject–verb agreement across clauses, and use a variety of grammatical forms such as relative clauses, conditionals, and passive constructions. It also requires organizing information with logical sequencing and clear relationships (cause/effect, comparison, definitions). This combination yields meaningful, educationally relevant data because it directly mirrors the language students use in classroom tasks like writing informative paragraphs or giving explanations, making it easier to identify specific morphosyntactic strengths and targets for intervention.

Narrative can be disrupted by memory or storytelling style and may not consistently reveal morphosyntactic difficulties in a way that translates to classroom tasks. Conversation is highly variable and influenced by interaction, which can hide underlying grammatical weaknesses. Pragmatic discourse focuses on social language functions rather than formal grammar, so it’s less reliable for measuring morphosyntax.