Test learners' ability to apply systemic functional linguistics to analyze how argumentation is constructed and sustained in academic research articles by examining metafunctions (ideational, interpersonal, textual), register variables (field, tenor, mode), and cohesive devices (reference, substitution, ellipsis, conjunction, lexical cohesion). Tasks should include identifying rhetorical moves, mapping clause-level choices (transitivity, modality, appraisal), diagnosing cohesion patterns, and linking linguistic choices to disciplinary persuasive effects.