Chinese 1 (CHIN10005)

Students will develop their ability to communicate and understand in simple Chinese by engaging with the following key cultural situations in Chinese society such as situations relating to the use of names, family relationships, social exchanges which deploy different forms of address, and engaging with physical spaces and geography, and temporal systems. Student expertise in the employment of both linguistic and cultural resources is developed through reading short Chinese texts addressing each of these cultural situations, acquitting the literacies associated with these situations. The study of Chinese texts is supported by additional materials introducing the cultural topics. The texts’ study is also supplemented by students’ oral presentations, role plays and engaging in group discussions, as well as their conductions of written exercise. All this ensures that students’ acquisition of linguistic and cultural competence is facilitated with the image of situated language through an explicit focus on social and physical situations.