High School Chinese 4A and 4B
This college level 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.
Prerequisite: High School Chinese 3B or approval by BSN Instructor
Enduring Understanding
This is the fourth part of a two-year course in Elementary Chinese Culture and Language. The dialect taught is Mandarin and the course is designed for students who have had prior exposure to Chinese language.
In this course we will continue building the four basic language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing. With regards to speaking and listening, we will work on initiating, sustaining and closing conversation based on general topics. We will work on moving away from sentence level grammar and conversational exchanges to more extended paragraph length discourse. Students will explore such genres as narrations, descriptions, etc. With regards to reading and writing, we will work on making a distinction between literary Chinese and vernacular Chinese. Students will be encouraged to employ literary devices in the written assignments. Students will also be exposed more to a limited amount of authentic media discourse. This may include magazine and newspaper articles, advertisements, movies, TV programs, radio broadcasts, and so on. By the end of this course students should feel somewhat comfortable communicating with Chinese in a variety of general topics, whether orally or written.
Course Design
- Lecture presentation.
- Reading and interpretation of written material and in-class exercises, including discussion using that material.
- Oral repetition to refine pronunciation.
- Listening comprehension with tapes and DVDs.
- In-class writing and translation drills.
- Research project on cultural aspects of the Chinese-speaking-world.
- Speech presentation, pair and group work about cultural aspects of China and other Mandarin-Chinese-speaking places and communities.
- Film viewings and cultural discussions.
Additional Resources Needed
Required Textbooks:
Discovering Chinese Volume 4 Student Pack (Simplified) ISBN-13: 978-1-60603-273-2
Order number SP563 from http://www.betterchinese.com/catalog.pdf
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
Unit 1
Text: Renting an Apartment
Unit 2
Text: At the Post Office
Unit 3
Text: Sports
Unit 4
Text: Travel
Unit 5
Text: Hometown
Unit 6
Text: At the Airport
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%