Course overview
Chinese IA is a course for beginners in the language, followed by Chinese IB in semester 2 to build up basic knowledge and skills in Chinese. Native speakers or heritage speakers of Mandarin Chinese are not eligible for this course. Students who have studied Chinese before should contact the lecturers concerned to decide the best level at which to place them. Chinese IA teaches the fundamental grammar and vocabulary of modern standard Chinese (formerly known as Mandarin). This is the educated speech of North China which is now the official national language. Simplified characters are taught. The vocabulary reflects usage in contemporary China. It is expected that at the end of the course students should be able to master the Chinese phonetic system (Hanyu Pinyin), and should have an active vocabulary of around 200 Chinese characters and associated compounds concentrating on vocabulary that relates to contemporary China.
Course learning outcomes
- obtain a knowledge and understanding of the Romanisation system, characters and basic structure of the Chinese language and of the social, historical and cultural contexts in which the language has been used and is currently used
- obtain a critical understanding of the linguistic landscape of Chinese speaking countries and regions and ways in which social and cultural specifications are represented through Chinese and Chinese speaking people
- locate, evaluate and apply characters/words/linking phrases learned to construct simple sentences and texts to express oneself
- locate, evaluate and apply the linguistic knowledge learned to handle general courtesy in Mandarin, answer predicable questions, introduce oneself and one's familiar environment in Mandarin
- obtain an understanding of and respect for cultural difference and diversity combined with a knowledge and understanding of the issues involved in intercultural communication
- demonstrate a heightened awareness and understanding of aspects of one's own language and culture as well as different ways of seeing the world
- demonstrate the ability to work collaboratively in a small group with peers in the exploration, generation and presentation of ideas, information and a meaningful dialogue
- gain the ability to be a critical and self-reflective learner, and to sustain intellectual curiosity about Chinese language, society and culture