SY 2014-2015
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COURSE TITLE:
Mandarin Chinese I
PREREQUISITE:
None
DESCRIPTION:
Students will be introduced to the Chinese language and culture in this course. The basic
objectives are to help each student attain an acceptable degree of proficiency in the four
skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing, and to present the language within
the context of the contemporary Chinese culture. Chinese characters will be introduced
systematically as they are related to the listening/speaking activities conducted
throughout the course.
MAIN TOPICS:
Listening
Speaking
Reading
Writing
Culture
 Greetings and
 Classes, Schedules, and
Introductions
Supplies
 Physical Descriptions and
 Interests and Leisure
Personality
Activities
Characteristics, Feelings,
 Weather and Seasons
and Emotions
 Cities, Places and
 Family Members
Activities
 Clothing and Colors
 Restaurants and Food
 Numbers and Time
 Days, Months, and
Calendar
Students will differentiate between formal and informal exchanges and
demonstrate comprehension via various classroom activities of the topics covered
in the curriculum. Students will listen carefully to the various tonalities in sound
and intonation patterns in order to process reproduction of sounds, words, and
phrases correctly.
Students will reproduce those concepts orally from the listening phase via
repetition and drill sequences presented in class in various activities. Students will
demonstrate attention to accuracy of register in introducing self and expressing
greetings, ask and answer questions, and perform in rehearsed and spontaneous
situations with the topics at hand. Accurate pronunciation and tonality is a definite
component of this skill.
Students will learn to recognize written Chinese characters and their various
sounds, pictorial and cultural connections, and relationships to words/phrases
previously acquired through listening and speaking. Students will be expected to
master Chinese characters as they are introduced in a variety of realistic situations
in classroom activities so that they are comfortable with reading at a pace similar
to that of conversation discourse learned at the speaking level.
Students will learn to reproduce in correct stroke order all Chinese characters
related to the topics of study in individual, word, and phrase form. It is important
for students to master each character as it is introduced since they shall be
components necessary to connect to future words/phrases in topics of study.
Students will be able to acquire knowledge of daily life, customs, and current
events and become aware of verbal and non-verbal cultural differences. They will
learn basic geographic features of China and become cognizant of the
contributions of the Chinese to other world cultures.
CREDIT INFO: This course provides one credit toward fulfilling the foreign language requirements for an
Advanced Studies Diploma (three years of one language or two years of two languages).
hgh
SY 2013-2014