Chinese Language: Basic Course

2023/2024

Academic Year

ENG

Instruction in English

23

ECTS credits

Delivered at:

Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs

Course type:

Elective course

When:

1 year, 1-4 module

Instructors

Bernyukevich, Alena

Go, Zhuizi

Заклепенко Анастасия Юрьевна

Новикова Дарина Евгеньевна

Subbotina, Anna

Шаталова Надежда Николаевна

Шустова Светлана Александровна

Course Syllabus

Abstract

This 2-year course is catered for students with no prior experience in the language. We will start the course by introducing pronunciation, reading, typing, and writing. Great emphasis will be placed upon standard pronunciation, listening comprehension, and everyday “survival” language. Through a wide range of learning activities such as daily dictation, oral and written tests, recalling of conversation, story-telling, dialogue construction, presentations, the course focuses students towards improving their pronunciation and tones; learning new grammar patterns; and applying the grammar and vocabulary learned. Various supplementary listening materials will be used from the beginning of this course to give students an authentic, practical way to learn correct pronunciation and reinforce class lessons. Additionally, the course will integrate Chinese culture into language learning to enhance the understanding of cultural influence on the language. The course aims at providing well-balanced development of the four language skills—reading, writing, speaking, and listening in the Chinese language, while also providing students with a deeper understanding of China and its culture. It is expected that by the end of the course students will reach B1 level according to CEFR and level 4 according to HSK.

Learning Objectives

• • communicative competence – developing communicative skills through speaking, listening, reading and writing in communicative scenarios and topics chosen for the course;
• • language competence – learning new language units (orthographic, phonetic, lexical, grammar) related to communicative scenarios and topics of the course; learning about language phenomena in the foreign language, about various ways of expressing ideas using the native and foreign languages;
• • socio-cultural competence – introducing students to the culture, traditions and realia of the country whose language they are learning; developing skills of presenting their country and its culture when communicating with foreigners;
• • cognitive competence – developing general and special academic skills; familiarizing students with available ways of autonomous learning of a foreign language and culture, ICT included.

Expected Learning Outcomes

• 1. In terms of speaking, students will be able to clearly express themselves in short but well connected paragraphs with some elaborations and limited idiomatic phrases. They will be able to produce sentence-level language. Their speech should be close to natural speed.
• 2. In terms of writing, students can satisfy some practical writing needs, such as simple messages and letters, requests for information, and notes. They are able to create with the language to communicate simple facts and ideas in a series of loosely connected sentences on topics of personal interest and social needs.
• 3. In terms of listening, students will be able to understand information conveyed in simple, sentence-length speech on familiar or everyday topics. They are able to engage in face-to-face conversations or in routine listening tasks such as understanding highly contextualized messages, straightforward announcements, or simple instructions and directions.
• 4. In terms of reading, students will be able to understand short, non-complex texts that convey basic and familiar information and deal with basic personal topics, such as in notices, weather reports, or a social announcement. Students at this level may comprehend some meaning from short connected texts featuring description and narration, dealing with familiar topics.

Course Contents

• 1 YEAR. Introduction: Chinese Pronunciation-Pinyin System, Tones, 150 basic Chinese radicals
• Greetings
• Everyday objects
• Countries and nationalities
• Family
• Study
• Students’ life
• Shopping and Currency exchange
• Talking about day, date, month and year.
• Birthday celebration
• Hobby and Future plans
• Asking about directions
• School routine
• Sports
• Visiting the doctor
• Renting an apartment
• 2 YEAR. Beijing and Shanghai
• Seasons and Weather
• Visiting an Exhibition
• Consulting a doctor. Traditional chinese medicine
• Travelling on vacation
• Going to the bookshop
• Attending a Chinese wedding
• Chinese New Year: Customs & Traditions
• Travelling by plane
• Visiting Peking opera
• Going on a mountain climbing trip
• Ordering food in restaurant
• Planning vacation
• Go to the police when you are in trouble
• Chinese lucky numbers

Assessment Elements

• In-class assignment
  During the semester there are grades for oral and written work. Written Classwork consists of various assessment activities conducted in class during the course: vocabulary and character quizzes, written translations, etc. In-class oral assignment consists of such activities as retelling the text, dialogue practice, conversations, group discussions, etc. The grades for these assignments are entered into the the electronic journal into the rows “written grade” and “oral grade”. The overall weight of the written work is higher than the overall weight of the oral work. The grade for the in-class assignment is calculated according to the following formulae: GIn-class assignment = 0,4 * Goral + 0,6 *Gwritten Attendance In case of the student’s absence for a valid reason, the student must provide a valid Certificate of Illness/Medical Note to the Students’ Office in the span of 1 (one) working day since the end of their sick leave, else their absence will be graded as 0 (zero). All absences without a valid reason will lower grade for classwork by 0,4 point grade for every 10% of missed classes.
• Unit tests
  Students have several written and oral tests during the semester. Usually they are given after the discussion and completion of the topic. Unit tests consist of such assessment activities as 1) writing test (lexico-grammatical test, vocabulary test, sentences or texts for translation from Russian to Chinese and vice versa); 2) Interview (students are required to talk to the instructor on the topic of the Unit / read, retell the text and answer the questions). The format and the topics of the test are subject to change at the discretion of the instructor. These grades are entered into the electronic journal into the rows “Test written grade” and “Test oral grade”. The overall weight of the written work is higher than that of the oral work. The grade is calculated according to the following formulae: Gunit tests = 0,4 *Goral test + 0,6 *Gwritten test
• Final written assignment
  Final written assignment consists of two parts: 1) Dictation and 2) Translation from Russian into Chinese (grammar part). The grade is calculated according to the following formulae: Gwritten exam = 0,4 * Gdictation + 0,6 * Ggrammar
• Final exam
  The oral exam is carried out on a separate day during the exam session. It includes materials introduced in classes up to the day of the exam and has got three parts: 1) Listening and completing the tasks based on the listening part; 2) Providing definitions and explanations of 5 Chinese phrases in Chinese; 3) Topic Presentation/Conversation.

Interim Assessment

• 2023/2024 2nd module
  0.16 * Final exam + 0.24 * Final written assignment + 0.3 * In-class assignment + 0.3 * Unit tests
• 2023/2024 4th module
  0.16 * Final exam + 0.24 * Final written assignment + 0.3 * In-class assignment + 0.3 * Unit tests
• 2024/2025 2nd module
  0.16 * Final exam + 0.24 * Final written assignment + 0.3 * In-class assignment + 0.3 * Unit tests
• 2024/2025 4th module
  0.16 * Final exam + 0.24 * Final written assignment + 0.3 * In-class assignment + 0.3 * Unit tests

Bibliography

Recommended Core Bibliography

• McNaughton, W., & Fan, J. (2013). Reading and Writing Chinese : Third Edition, HSK All Levels (2,633 Chinese Characters and 5,000+ Compounds) (Vol. Third edition). Tokyo: Tuttle Publishing. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1568742
• William McNaughton. (2015). Reading & Writing Chinese Simplified Character Edition : (HSK Levels 1 - 4). North Clarendon, UNITED STATES: Tuttle Publishing. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1568914

Recommended Additional Bibliography

• Sam Brier, & Xia Lu. (2014). Chinese Phrase A Day Practice Volume 1 : Includes Downloadable CD. [N.p.]: Tuttle Publishing. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsebk&AN=1568040