Modern Chinese - Elementary level I [ LCHIN1100 ]

None, as it is a course for beginners. Together with the course LCHIN1300, it makes up the elementary level of Chinese at the ILV.

The course covers every day and familiar topics such as : introducing oneself, talking about family, shopping, telephoning, telling the time, talking about the weather.
Course activities cover the following:

• Identification and reproduction of the tones of the Chinese language and pronunciation exercises
• Introduction to pinyin and the transcription of tones
• Introduction to writing Chinese ideograms
• Learning a reasonable number of everyday words
• Construction of simple sentences (orally and in writing)
• Learning a first series of classifiers
• Question/answer exercises
• Reading short texts
• Dictation

By the end of the course, the student should have acquired:

• the rules of Chinese writing: the direction of strokes, the roots; how to break down an unknown ideogram, determine the number of strokes and the root
• pinyin with its tones, pronunciation
• basic grammatical structures
• basic vocabulary
• comprehension of messages relating to simple and familiar situations
• the ideograms (simplified) taught during the course (+/- 300)
• the ability to construct simple sentences
• the ability to ask simple questions and answer them
• the ability to read simple sentences using the vocabulary learned

1. Consolidation and revision exercises.
2. General revision at the end of the year
3. Final exam : 50% oral, 50% written
   Students have to obtain 10/20 to be admitted to the elementary course level II.

Audiovisual method
Each lesson comprises a mini-scenario presenting the theme of the lesson
The visual support allows vocabulary to be introduced directly in Chinese, without the need to translate.
Each 4-hour lesson is made up as follows: 50% oral, 50% written work. In additional, there is homework.

This course aims to teach the basics of the Chinese language: pronunciation, the tones, basic sentence structure, writing, its alphabetic transcription, called 'pinyin' (internationally recognised official transcription). Right from the first lesson, the students start to speak and interact in simple and familiar situations, and read and write ideograms

Explanatory note
As the Chinese language does not belong to the family of Indo-European languages, it is not easy to put the course specification information in such a way that fits into the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.
The learner of Chinese is confronted with a particular situation throughout the learning process: he/she is looking at a language which seldom has any equivalence with a European language as regards pronunciation ' in addition, Chinese is a tonal language ' and as regards writing, which is not alphabetic but ideographic. This automatically involves learning and memorising each ideogram one by one.   Learning to write is a life-long process for Chinese people too and explains why this is a slow process compared to alphabet-based writing systems. In addition, the learner is faced with a completely different type of grammar, Chinese being invariable. Its grammar, which is nevertheless complex, is unlike the grammar of any European language. These points mean that a different type of teaching and learning method is necessary to overcome the difficulties inherent in learning a language of the Sino-Tibetan family of languages.

There are 2 volumes of course notes to accompany the course: one volume of the course notes contains ideogrammes; one volume of course notes, containing:

• Vocabulary and ideograms of the week
• Vocabulary exercises
• Grammar exercises
• Writing exercises
• Reading exercises
• Texts studied (simplified and non-simplified versions)
• Weekly homework
• Cultural texts
• Two CDs containing exercises on all the course material are available to students in the first year.

• The teacher can be consulted during her office hours during the whole academic year.
• Non-UCL students who take the end-of-year exam will receive an ILV certificate.
• Level  A1 or A1+  of the 'Common European Framework of Reference for Languages'
• Possibility to do a summer language course in Beijing (80 hours of lessons), costs to be borne by the student.