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2022/2023

Language IV: Modern Chinese

Code: 101569 ECTS Credits: 12
Degree Type Year Semester
2500244 East Asian Studies OB 2 2
2500244 East Asian Studies OT 4 2

Contact

Name:
Xuehang Jin Wang
Email:
xuehang.jin@uab.cat

Use of Languages

Principal working language:
spanish (spa)
Some groups entirely in English:
No
Some groups entirely in Catalan:
No
Some groups entirely in Spanish:
No

Other comments on languages

Classes will be given in Spanish and Chinese.

Prerequisites

Students must have passed Modern Chinese levels I, II and III.

Objectives and Contextualisation

The aim of this subject is to consolidate students’ learning of the basic linguistic knowledge of Chinese Language and to prepare them for a proper understanding of Chinese society, oral communication with native Chinese speakers, and written skills. On completing the subject, the student will be able to:

  • Understand the information contained in short, simple written texts referring to everyday situations.
  • Produce short, simple written texts referring to everyday situations.
  • Recognize the phonological system and basic lexicon and understand basic oral communication referring to everyday situations.
  • Use the phonological and lexical system and produce basic oral expressions referring to everyday situations and be able to write a short text of 500 Chinese characters.
  • Have a good linguistic and cultural knowledge about the modern Chinese language, basic level.

Competences

    East Asian Studies
  • Developing self-learning strategies.
  • Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  • Produce oral texts in one of the languages of East Asia.
  • Solving problems of intercultural communication.
  • Understand oral texts in one of the languages of East Asia.
  • Understand texts written in one of the languages of East Asia.
  • Write texts in one of the languages of East Asia.

Learning Outcomes

  1. Apply knowledge of lexis, morphosyntax, texts, rhetoric and linguistic variation.
  2. Apply strategies to produce oral texts for different contexts and for specific communicative purposes.
  3. Apply strategies to produce written texts for different contexts and for specific communicative purposes.
  4. Apply strategies to understand oral texts from various different contexts.
  5. Apply strategies to understand written texts from various different contexts.
  6. Deal with interferences between the working languages.
  7. Developing self-learning strategies.
  8. Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  9. Produce oral texts for different contexts and for specific communicative purposes.
  10. Produce oral texts that are appropriate to the context and linguistically correct.
  11. Produce written texts for different contexts and for specific communicative purposes.
  12. Produce written texts that are appropriate to the context and linguistically correct.
  13. Solving problems of intercultural communication.
  14. Understand the communicative intent and the meaning of oral texts from various different contexts.
  15. Understand the communicative intent and the meaning of written texts from various different contexts.

Content

The subject's content can be divided into the following types:

Phonological and graphic:

  • application of the Pinyin transcription system in learning new vocabulary by writing
  • consolidation of the basic principles of writing: character structure identification; decomposition into different components (semantic parts, phonetic parts); stroke order, number and type
  • recognition of traditional Chinese characters
  • typing Chinese into electronic devices

Lexical and morphological:

  • learning frequently used radicals
  • use and understanding of basic everyday vocabulary (around 300 new words)

Grammar (morphosyntactic level): 

  • Imperative mode
  • sentences with 把
  • duplication of verbs
  • special constructions:
    • 越 ... ... 越 ... ...
    • 除了 ... ... 以 ， 还 ... ...
  • result complement with 到
  • percentages
  • serial verbs construction
  • immediate future
  • adverbs with 地
  • time complement (lenght)
  • open-ended questions
  • difference between 地 ， 的 and 得 

Communicative and sociocultural skills:

  • talking about flavours, food, drinks, ingredients and recipes
  • buying gifts, asking for prices, bargaining
  • talking about travel
  • describing landscapes
  • describing the physical appearance of people
  • talking about diseases
  • giving reasons
  • giving advice
  • talking about hobbies
  • describing someone's personality

Encyclopaedic and instrumental knowledge:

  • basic general knowledge about the Chinese language
  • introduction to certain aspects of Chinese culture directly or indirectly related to the language mastering, such as tea houses, famous mountains in China, traditional Chinese medicine, etc.

Methodology

The formative activities are divided into directed activities, supervised activities, and autonomous activities. 

Directed activities: the teacher will explain the most important contents of each unit; students will practise reading out loud and do exercises in oral and written comprehension, as well as oral expression exercises. They will practise new grammar points and vocabulary, sight translation, revise material already covered, etc. Class activities, therefore, will be varied and of different types (oral and written, individual and in groups). In some cases, they will be assessed (students will be assessed on whether they regularly prepare the tasks set by the teacher, as well as their dedication to the subject and the pace of their work).

Supervised activities (both face-to-face and virtual): these will include practising oral comprehension and expression, as well as the completion of exercises.

Autonomous activities: will consist of practising calligraphy, studying the characters and vocabulary, preparing and revising texts and new grammar points, completing and self-checking exercises (via the teaching web) and writing tasks.

The student will need to devote approximately 50 hours’ study to each teaching unit, including the  supervised and autonomous activities (preparation, practice exercises and revision). This level of commitment is essential to ensure that students follow the subject satisfactorily and achieve the appropriate pace of work.

Annotation: Within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Activities

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Reading, oral and written comprehension tasks, written production and class activities. 90 3.6 1, 5, 4, 3, 15, 14, 7, 12, 11, 13
Type: Supervised      
Oral and written comprehension exercises, text composition, correction of the exercises done and troubleshooting. 90 3.6 1, 5, 4, 3, 15, 14, 12, 11
Type: Autonomous      
Study and practice of the new words in each lesson, preparation of activities for oral, written and reading comprehension. 90 3.6 1, 5, 4, 3, 15, 14, 7, 12, 11, 13

Assessment

Assessment is continuous. Students must provide evidence of their progress by completing tasks and tests. Task deadlines will be indicated in the course schedule on the first day of class. All activity deadlines are indicated in the subject's schedule and must be strictly adhered to.

Related matters

The above information on assessment, assessment activities and their weighting is merely a guide. The subject's lecturer will provide full information when teaching begins.

Review 

When publishing final marks prior to recording them on students' transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews by agreement with the lecturer.

Missed/failed assessment activities 

Students may retake assessment activities they have failed or compensate for any they have missed, provided that those they have actually performed account for a minimum of 66.6% (two thirds) of the subject's final mark and that they have a weighted average mark of at least 3.5. Under no circumstances may an assessment activity worth 100% of the final mark be retaken or compensated for.

The lecturer will inform students of the procedure involved, in writing, when publishing final marks prior to recording them on transcripts. The lecturer may set one assignment per failed or missed assessment activity or a single assignment to cover a number of such activities.

Classification as "not assessable" 

In the event of the assessment activities a student has performed accounting for just 25% or less of the subject's final mark, their work will be classified as "not assessable" on their transcript.

Misconduct in assessment activities 

Students who engage in misconduct (plagiarism, copying, personation, etc.) in an assessment activity will receive a mark of “0” for the activity in question. In the case of misconduct in more than one assessment activity, the students involved will be given a final mark of “0” for the subject.

Students may not retake assessment activities in which they are found to have engaged in misconduct. Plagiarism is considered to mean presenting all or part of an author's work, whether published in print or in digital format, as one's own, i.e. without citing it. Copying is considered to mean reproducing all or a substantial part of another student's work. In cases of copying in which it is impossible to determine which of two students has copied the work of the other, both will be penalised.  

More information: http://www.uab.cat/web/study-abroad/undergraduate/academic-information/evaluation/what-is-it-about-1345670077352.html

Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Exercises (Listening tasks and tasks of comprehension and expression written) 40% (one activity for each lessson) 20 0.8 1, 5, 4, 3, 2, 15, 14, 7, 12, 11, 10, 9, 6, 13, 8
Tests 60% (30% x 2) 10 0.4 1, 5, 3, 15, 7, 6

Bibliography

Reference textbooks: 

-   Ding Anqi, Chen Xin, Jin Lili (2010) Discover China: Student's book Two + workbook. Oxford: Macmillan Education; Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Both the textbook and activity book are necessary. The rest of exercises, activities or information for the subject will be poted in the Moodle classroom at: https://cv2008.uab.cat/.

Reference works: 

-   (Liu Xun) ed. El Nuevo Libro de Chino Práctico . (I) Pequín: Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2009.

-   Helena Casas Tost, Sara Rovira esteva, Anne-Hélène Suárez Girard, lengua china para traductores, Vol.II, Materiual 188, servei de publicació, UAB 

-   López Calvo, F.; Zhao, Baoyan. 2013. Guía esencial de la lengua china. Madrid: Adeli Ediciones.

  • A very readable introduction to all aspects of the Chinese language and Chinese writing, presented in a question-and-answer format. Very clear. 

-   Zhou Minkang, "Gramática china ", 1997, versión castellana, Bellaterra: Servei de publicacions de la UAB. (Materials, 30).

  • One of the few Chinese grammars in Spanish. Clear explanations and many exercises. 

-   Ramírez, Laureano. 1999. Del carácter al contexto: Teoría y práctica de la traducción del chino moderno. Bellaterra: Servei de publicacions de la UAB. (Materials, 74).

  • Useful throughout the degree programme. Covers all kinds of matters concerning the Chinese language, from its history to its linguistics and translation. 

Internet resources to support your study:

1. To learn about phonetics and transcription in pinyin:

2.  To practise pronunciation (tones, phonemes, etc.) by yourself:

 3. To practise by yourself the writing of thecharacters(simplified and traditional):

4. Other Internet resources to support your study:

5. Paper dictionaries:

Zhou, Minkang. 1999. Diccionari Català-Xinès, Xinès-Català. Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana. (Diccionaris de l’Enciclopèdia). 

Zhou, Minkang. 2006. Diccionari Castellà-Xinès,Xinès-Castellà. Barcelona: Editorial Herder.

6. On-line dictionaries: 

7. Self-learning Chinese language:

8. MOOC Chinese language:

Software

No software is used.