Modern Chinese - Elementary level I

Teacher(s)

Du Xiaofei (coordinator);

Language

French

Main themes

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 leant texts aloud
• Dictation

Aims

At the end of this learning unit, the student is able to :

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 (+/- 250) 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

Content

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.

Teaching methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

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: 40% oral, 60% written work. In additional, there is homework.

Evaluation methods

Due to the COVID-19 crisis, the information in this section is particularly likely to change.

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:
   7 points (oral),
   11 points (written)
   
   Exceptional case: if the student can not take the Q1 test, with a valid justification, the written part will correspond to 11 points of the final mark.
    
4. Continuous assessment : 2 points of the final mark.
5. Learners have to obtain 10/20 to be admitted to the elementary level II

Other information

• 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.
• A1 Level of the 'Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

Bibliography

Deux syllabus accompagnent le cours:

1. Un syllabus reprenant les idéogrammes du cours
2. Un syllabus de cours, comprenant
   Le vocabulaire et les idéogrammes de la semaine
   Des exercices de vocabulaire
   Des exercices de grammaire
   Des exercices d'écriture
   Des exercices de lecture
   Les textes étudiés
   Les devoirs hebdomadaires
   Fiches culturelles

Des exercices audio de révision sont disponibles sur Moodle.

Faculty or entity

ILV