Chinese Novice 1 is designed for beginners who have no prior knowledge of Mandarin Chinese. The course first focuses on the Hanyu Pinyin pronunciation system, allowing students to acquire basic speaking, listening skills, then students will also acquire fundamental reading and character writing skills. Students will not only learn how to communicate in Chinese orally and in writing but also explore Chinese culture with thousands of years of history. Class work includes communicative activities, dialogues, and paired/group practice. A variety of materials are used to reinforce language skills. Classroom instruction is predominantly delivered in Chinese. English will be provided to ensure comprehensive input when needed. Students will be asked to speak Chinese primarily during class. Students will acquire Chinese communication skills through a myriad of contextualized and real-life situations. Since this is an introductory Chinese course, the ultimate emphasis will be put on cultivating students’ interest in learning the language and on introducing them to the profoundness of Chinese culture. By the end of this course, students will reach the ACTFL Novice Mid level of oral proficiency.
Chinese Novice 1 Year - 1 credit Prerequisite: None
Chinese Intermediate 1 elevates the proficiency of the Chinese language from Novice 2 ， continues the focus on increasing oral proficiency and fluency, along with a review of major Chinese grammatical structures and patterns, and more intensified practice of Chinese characters to engage students in intermediate-level spoken proficiency tasks. Class discussions are covering the differences between Western and Eastern values on topics such as festival customs and etiquette. Students' reading is supplemented with daily reading materials in real life. Students can participate in conversations on a number of familiar topics using complete sentences. They can handle short social interactions in everyday situations by asking and answering simple questions. Students can understand the main idea of short and simple texts when the topic is familiar. They can present information on most familiar topics using a series of simple sentences.Students reach or approach the ACTFL Intermediate Mid level by the end of the course. Chinese Novice 2 continues from the foundation course Chinese Novice 1, focusing on building students’ command of oral communicative structures in more sophisticated contexts, and building reading and writing skills using Chinese characters with gradually less Pinyin support, using supplementary elementary story texts, movie scenes and video clips. It continues to present more grammatical structures and patterns under meaningful contexts. Students are encouraged to think, speak, and write more consistently in Chinese. Daily oral practice, including group/peer activities, games, skits, writing assignments and dialogues of real life situations will be conducted throughout the class, while developing the ability to express ideas in Chinese. Based on the prior exposure towards Chinese culture in different aspects, students will expand their knowledge and deepen their cultural understanding and sensitivity. By the end of this course, students will reach the ACTFL Novice High to Intermediate Low level of oral proficiency.
Chinese Novice 2 Year - 1 credit Prerequisite: Chinese Novice 1
Chinese Intermediate 1 Year - 1 credit Prerequisite: Chinese Novice 2
Chinese Intermediate 2 Year - 1 credit Prerequisite: Chinese Intermediate 1
Chinese Intermediate 2 will continue with the skills developed in Chinese Intermediate 1 with an increased focus on developing and refining grammatical functions, idioms, and expressions. Students learn to understand the main idea and some information from authentic texts, participate in spoken and written conversations, and communicate information on familiar topics using increasingly sophisticated sentences. Students also learn to compare their cultural practices to those of the Chinese-speaking world and learn to interact appropriately within cultural and social contexts. Mastered with a base of more advanced grammar and richer vocabulary, students work toward greater proficiency and more independent learning of Chinese. They are also able to handle improvised conversation in a natural way for different social interactions. Students reach or approach the ACTFL Intermediate High level by the end of the course.
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