Modern Chinese Intermediate level II

LCHIN1500 or diploma/training recognized as equivalent.

The prerequisite(s) for this Teaching Unit (Unité d’enseignement – UE) for the programmes/courses that offer this Teaching Unit are specified at the end of this sheet.

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 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

The contribution of this Teaching Unit to the development and command of the skills and learning outcomes of the programme(s) can be accessed at the end of this sheet, in the section entitled “Programmes/courses offering this Teaching Unit”.

1. General revision at the end of the year.
2. Q1 test (partial written exam) represents 2 points of the final mark.
3. Final exam:
   8 points (oral),
   8 points (written)
   
   Exceptional case: if the student cannot take the Q1 test, with a valid justification, the written part will represent 10 points of the final mark.
    
4. Continuous assessment : 2 points out of the final mark.
5. Optional test : If a student did the summer language course in Beijing and passed (6/10) the oral test in September, 20 % of the mark (maximum : 10 points) will be added to the final mark.
6. Learners have to obtain 10/20 to receive 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:

• 50% oral,
• 50% 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:

1. one contains ideograms and
2. one the cour se 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 intermediate level II 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 may ask for an ILV certificate.
• Level A2+ or B1- 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.