Course Catalogue

View Specification Document | Reading List

This is a post-beginner course in Chinese language (modern standard Chinese) for students who have taken Chinese language 1 or have some basic Chinese at similar level. It will build on the first semester course to introduce students to more complex grammar, extend their reading knowledge of Chinese characters to around 250 and develop their spoken Chinese and listening comprehension skills. Students will also enhance their knowledge of Chinese culture and be able to advise others on how to avoid major social, cultural and linguistic faux pas when speaking Mandarin and/or when in China.

The course will be comprised of 6 contact hours per week over 10 weeks:

■ grammar, reading and writing (3 hours)

■ listening comprehension and spoken Chinese (3 hours).

Pass in Chinese Language 1 or demonstrated equivalent Chinese language ability.

None

None

End-of-course examination:

■ Reading comprehension (weighting 20 per cent)

■ Translation (weighting 20 per cent)

■ Listening comprehension (weighting 15 per cent)

■ Spoken Chinese (weighting 15 per cent)

Assessed coursework (three written assessments each weighted at 10 per cent; total weighting 30 per cent)

This course aims to:

■ Bring students up to a post-beginner level in spoken and written standard Chinese (Mandarin).

■ Put the emphasis on achieving a post-beginner level of communication in all four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) while developing confidence and a degree of accuracy when using the language in a limited range of practical situations.

■ Enable students to extend the number of characters they can write and recognise.

■ Improve students' spoken Chinese and listening comprehension skills, stimulate their interest in China and deepen their knowledge and understanding of Chinese society and culture.

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Demonstrate a reading knowledge of 300 characters and a writing knowledge of around 300 characters

■ Demonstrate the ability to translate longer and slightly more complex texts from Chinese into English

■ Demonstrate the ability to write short pieces of prose in Chinese

■ Extract accurately the key information from audio and/or video material

■ Understand and make themselves understood by a sympathetic native speaker in specific contexts

■ Communicate in simple, routine situations

■ Demonstrate some awareness of cultural and linguistic differences between the use of Mandarin and English

Students must submit (successfully complete) at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.