List of Chinese Courses Offered:

• Introduction to Chinese

• Chinese 1

• Chinese 2

• Chinese 3

• Chinese 4 (Advanced)

• Chinese 5/6 (Advanced)

• Independent Studies (Advanced)

This introductory course is designed for students who have little or no prior exposure to Chinese. The main objective of the course is to help students build understanding of Chinese language and culture with themes and subjects that are relevant to their daily lives focusing on interpersonal, interpretational, and presentation skills. The pedagogical instruction employs a step-by-step approach that reinforces oral communication and a solid foundation of character recognition and typing. After one year of instruction, students should achieve proficiency level of novice mid to novice high as defined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. They will be able to 1) participate in a conversation on familiar topics; 2) respond to simple questions; 3) provide information about oneself; 4) understand some important elements of Chinese culture; and 5) recognize 200 characters and reproduce approximately 150 characters. (1 credit) 

The objective of this course is to help students build a solid foundation of the four basic skills – listening, speaking, reading, and writing – in an interactive and communicative learning environment. At the completion of this course, students should achieve proficiency level of novice high to intermediate low as defined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. They will be able to 1) ask and answer questions in order to carry on a conversation about daily activities, friends and family, preferences, school life, and more; 2) understand the main ideas of some short, simple authentic texts; and 3) use a series of sentences to make presentations about familiar topics. In order to reinforce students' listening and speaking abilities, short Chinese films and video clips are integrated into the curriculum. A variety of Chinese cultural elements such as music, movies, poetry, arts, cuisine, and pop culture will also be introduced. (1 credit) 

In this intermediate course, students will develop a greater understanding of Chinese culture and daily life and continue building a solid foundation of the four language skills – listening, speaking, reading, and writing. By the end of this course, students should achieve proficiency levels in the intermediate low to intermediate mid range as defined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. They should be able to 1) carry on a longer conversation about friends, family, home, daily life, interests, personal opinions, preferences, and more; 2) ask and respond to questions giving some explanations; 3) give a presentation on a topic of personal interest or experience; 4) tell a story that includes some details and descriptions; and 5) write about one’s daily life, interests, and experiences in a series of sentences and short paragraphs. In order to develop students' listening and speaking ability, songs, short Chinese movies, television shows, and video clips will be integrated into the course curriculum, in addition to a variety of other cultural elements such as poetry, arts, cuisine, and pop culture. (1 credit) 

This is an intermediate-advanced language class that aims to lay a solid foundation in language form and accuracy for students. By the end of this course, students should achieve proficiency levels in the intermediate mid to intermediate high range as defined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. The students will be able to 1) initiate and maintain an extended conversation with ease and confidence about work, school, recreation, personal interests and areas of competence; 2) discuss events that happened or will happen; 3) write short compositions on topics of interest; 4) use sequencing and transition words to connect sentences into paragraphs; and 5) write about an event in different time frames. Reading and audio materials are provided and discussed. In order to develop students' listening and speaking ability, short Chinese movies, television shows, and video clips will be integrated into the course curriculum. (1 credit) Students must have achieved said level of proficiency, an 85% or above, and/or department approval to be promoted to the next level. 

This course is designed for students with advanced level training but who need some further refinements on pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary usage. This course also stresses oral discussion and accuracy of language performance. By the end of the course, students are able to sustain a conversation on a wide variety of topics, to ask and respond to a variety of questions, make recommendations, describe in detail and narrate in all major time frames, and handle a complicated or unexpected event. By the end of the year, students are expected to have mastered the 650-800 most commonly used characters and to have the ability to express themselves coherently in a series of sentences. Writing and oral presentations in Chinese are required in the classroom. In addition, this course will provide students a broader perspective on Chinese culture, more up-to-date language components, such as authentic linguistic materials. New illustrations are introduced to reflect cultural life in the dynamic and rapidly changing contemporary China. By the end of this course, students should achieve proficiency levels in the intermediate high to advanced low range as defined by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. (1 credit) Students must have achieved said level of proficiency, an 85% or above, and/or department approval to be promoted to the next level.