Modern Chinese advanced level [ LCHIN1700 ]

This course is for any learner who has taken the intermediate course at the ILV or who has taken an equivalent course at another institution.

The course covers various topics such as : reading Chinese legends, knowledge of Chinese culture and traditions, discovering historical sites and monuments, interviews, etc.
Course activities cover the following:

• Translation of sentences using correct grammar
• Active use of vocabulary (questions and answers)
• Group discussion of everyday topics
• Reading long authentic texts
• Reading aloud texts studied in class
• Extension of vocabulary of synonyms and antonyms
• Comprehension of a video conversation between Chinese people
• Creating short talks
• Learning Chinese games and songs
• Video-conference with Chinese people (if possible)

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

• An active knowledge of +/- 1 000 ideograms plus a passive knowledge of several hundred others
• The essential modern grammar structures
• A very extensive vocabulary and basic writing skills
• The ability to understand native-speaker conversations even when accents differ slightly from Mandarin
• The ability to understand the gist of video clips presenting the daily life of Chinese people
• The ability to write about given subjects
• The ability to read texts on a wide variety of topics
• The ability to discuss various topics with Chinese people and speak fairly fluently
• The ability to translate sentences with typical Chinese grammar structures and vocabulary

1. Regular consolidation and revision exercises.
2. General revision at the end of the year
3. Final exam : 60% oral, 40% written
   Students have to obtain 12/20 to be awarded a certificate.

The approach is varied: unseen texts, listening exercises, visual aids, recordings, comic strips, videos etc.
Each lesson will have a theme, sometimes a very broad one, of Chinese culture, traditions, history, language, legends etc, and very specific points of grammar (time-measure complements, directional complements, correlative adverbs, passive particles, relative clauses etc)

Each 4-hour lesson is made up as follows: 60% oral, 40% written work. Active learning and memorization of ideograms has to be done at home.

The course aims to enable students to speak the Chinese language fluently and understand it well. It enables them to read texts on various subjects with the aid of a dictionary, and to write texts themselves.
In addition, the most important aspects of grammar and the grammatical and lexical particularities of Chinese are studied, enabling students to continue their study of the language autonomously after the course.

There are 2 volumes of course notes to accompany the course: one contains ideograms and one the course notes as follows:

• Vocabulary and ideograms of the week
• Vocabulary exercises
• Grammar exercises
• Reading and translation exercises
• Texts to be studied (simplified and unabridged versions)
• Weekly homework
• Cultural texts

CDs with exercises for each topic are also available for the advanced level course.
Newspapers can be provided for extra reading if students ask (e.g. for articles on economics).

• 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  B1(+) or B2 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.