Hawaii Pacific University
CHIN 1100 Beginning Mandarin I Section ____
Semester and year, meeting times
Instructor: Name, contact information and other relevant information about the instructor.
Course description: This is an introductory course on standard Mandarin Chinese (Putonghua in China,
or Guoyu in Taiwan). The goal is to provide students with the basic speaking, listening, reading, and
writing skills to handle some of the most common daily tasks. Throughout the first semester,
pronunciation, basic vocabulary, grammatical structures, and cultural information will be systematically
introduced. Although oral and auditory skills are primarily emphasized, a variety of in-class activities will
be devised to facilitate students’ acquisition of all four areas of language skills.
Course prerequisites: None
General Education Requirement: This course is classified under the Communication Skills Theme and
meets the requirement for a course in Communication Skills B: Communication Contexts.
General Education Student Learning Outcomes and the Five Themes: HPU’s general education
curriculum is focused around five themes. This course emphasizes the Communication Skills Theme and
provides students with opportunities to achieve the following related general education student
learning outcomes:



Students will demonstrate critical reasoning in organizing their thoughts, feelings, concepts and
information in Chinese for effective, clear, and accurate oral and written communication. [CS
4]
Students will compare, contrast, and interact with various communications contexts in Chinese,
such as intrapersonal, interpersonal, small group, public, and mass communication. (Students
will learn to use Chinese to reflect on their own thoughts and experiences, to communicate in
one-to-one conversations, small group discussions, and class presentations. Students will also
read authentic materials in print and on the world wide web, and listen to a variety of accents
in conversations, group discussions, and formal presentations using both audio and video
media). [CS 3]
Students will analyze the way people communicate within and across cultures, genders,
generations, and organizations and develop skills in communicating in Chinese across these
domains. (Students will develop skills in communicating in Chinese with people from a variety
of cultures, with men and women, with older and younger interlocutors, using both formal and
informal registers). [CS 1]
The course also addresses the World Cultures theme and provides students with opportunities to
achieve the following related general education student learning outcome:

Students will engage with and develop skills to interpret various manifestations of cultures
of the Chinese-speaking world including verbal and visual texts, institutions, behavior, and
performance. [WC 5]
Course-Specific Student Learning Outcomes for CHIN 1100 Beginning Mandarin I
Students will gain basic communication skills in standard Mandarin Chinese in some of the most
frequently encountered contexts, such as meeting friends, talking about families, friends and
hobbies, and making appointments. Students are expected to achieve the following areas of
fluency at the completion of this course:
Speaking: be able to carry simple conversations and narratives in familiar contexts by effectively
utilizing the vocabulary learned.
Listening: be able to transcribe correctly the segments and tones in a Chinese syllable, and
understand some of the most frequently occurring fixed expressions and clear speech in familiar
contexts.
Reading: be able to understand specific texts (e.g. textbook lessons covered) written in either
traditional/simplified Chinese characters or pinyin, and to utilize learning tools such as a Chinese-English
dictionary.
Writing: be able to transcribe correctly in Pinyin, identify the components of Chinese characters,
and write some of the most common and simple characters.
At the completion of this course, students will achieve the following:
1) Speaking/listening: be able to correctly transcribe and sound out Chinese syllables in Pinyin, to
utilize the 200+ vocabulary and a handful of grammatical structures learned in class to make short
sentences and narratives, and to understand and carry simple conversations in specific topics with
native speakers.
2) Reading/Writing: be able to read all and write some Chinese characters learned in class, to
read and write in Pinyin efficiently, and to utilize a bilingual dictionary for self-study and supplementary
vocabulary.
Note: Purple text shows places where specific course information must be filled in. Red text provides
explanatory notes to the instructor which should be deleted before using the syllabus. Parenthetical
explanations of how the course addressed the second and third gen ed outcomes may be modified to fit
the content of your specific course. Course-specific outcomes above are an example and may be
rephrased or modified by the instructor.
For the rest of these required syllabus items see the details in the faculty handbook. Delete this note
once the syllabus is complete. For online courses there are some additional requirements given at this
link.
Texts List textbooks with ISBN’s and include this language as well
All textbook information (pricing, ISBN #, and e-books) for this course can be found on the HPU
Bookstore website: hpu.edu/bookstore.
If you have any questions regarding textbooks, please contact the HPU Bookstore at:
Phone:
808-544-9347
Or e-mail:
jyokota@hpu.edu
mmiyahira@hpu.edu
Assignments and mode of evaluation
Summary of important dates and deadlines (if the schedule is a separate document and due dates are
not given with the description of the assignments).
Class rules and policies (including regarding attendance, late work and academic dishonesty)
Schedule of events (may be attached separately)