High School Chinese 1A and 1B
This course serves as an introduction to Modern Standard Chinese (Mandarin) as a foreign language for beginners. The main goal for this course is for students to acquire a culturally contextualized working knowledge of and essential skills in introductory Chinese. The course aims at developing four basic skills, reading, writing, listening, and speaking, and at building a solid foundation in preparation for more advanced studies.
Enduring Understanding
After successful completion of the course, students should be able to:
1. Have a good mastery of the pinyin system so that they can pronounce and transcribe correctly all sounds used in modern standard Chinese;
2. Have a good command of basic strokes and the stroke-order for writing Chinese characters;
3. Read short and simple texts and write approximately 350 characters;
4. Master basic sentence patterns and use them to produce their own sentences;
5. Be able to conduct simple conversations.
Additional Resources Needed
Required Textbooks:
- Discovering Chinese Volume 1 Student Pack (Simplified) ISBN-13: 978-1-60603-270-1 Order number SP560 from http://www.betterchinese.com/catalog.pdf
- Mention blendedschools.net when you order
Required Technology:
- Computer that meets the minimum system requirements listed on the Live Classroom page
- Internet connection (Broadband preferred)
- Headset with microphone combination
- E-mail account (recommended)
- Printer
- Scanner or access to a fax machine (Your school should have this available for you
- DVD Player (in PC or consumer player)
- Web camera for computer (recommended
- Writing tablet (recommended)- (Genius Mouse Pen 8x6 - $50; Bamboo [Small] Pen tablet with pen only - $70 - from Amazon.com)
Content Topics
Introduction
Chinese phonetic system: Pronunciation & tones & writing system, Common expressions in the classroom
Unit 1
Text: Greetings, Names, Age
Unit 2
Text: Nationality, School, Family
Unit 3
Text: Dates and Time
Unit 4
Food and Objects
Key Skills
Listening
- Listen to recordings of each lesson after studying the vocabulary list;
- Do listening comprehension based on more mini-dialogues or solo narrations.
Speaking
- Ask concrete, personal questions related to our daily lives. By stringing together short questions and answers, students will be able to construct their own mini-dialogues, practice in pairs or take turns asking or answering the questions;
- Express own opinions on a number of topics in paragraph-length discourse
Reading comprehension
- Read sentences the instructor provides; answer questions.
- Read the short passage which is related to the lesson learned.
- Read slightly modified authentic materials, such as a personal ad or movie listings.
Writing and Grammar
- Clearly understand the important grammar points
- Answer questions or complete sentences using specific grammatical forms.
- Translate sentences or paragraphs given by the instructor.
- Write simple compositions on daily topics after expressing orally.
- Vocabulary quizzes.
- Write statements based on information given in class by the instructor or induced by audio and audio visual materials.
- Demonstrate correct character writing on Character workbook.
- Write or read basic dialogues emphasizing cultural aspects of the Mandarin-Chinese-speaking-world.
- Present one project related to Chinese culture.
Assessments
- Attendance, regular practice/drills and classroom participation: 20%
- Home work: 15%
- Project: 5%
- Quizzes: 10%
- Midterm: 20%
- Final: 30%