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2022/2023

Chinese III: Foundations for Communication in Chinese

Code: 105863 ECTS Credits: 12
Degree Type Year Semester
2504012 Spanish and Chinese Studies: Language, Literature and Culture OB 2 1

Contact

Name:
Mireia Vargas Urpi
Email:
mireia.vargas@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 Catalan, Spanish and Chinese.

Prerequisites

It is advisable to have passed the subjects Chinese I & II (Introduction to Chinese language and writing). 

Objectives and Contextualisation

The purpose of this subject is to consolidate students' basic linguistic knowledge of Chinese in order for them to correctly understand Chinese society and be able to communicate orally and in writing in Chinese.

On successfully completing this subject, students will be able to:

  • Understand information in short, simple written texts on topics related to their specific, immediate environment.
  • Write short, simple texts on topics related to their specific, immediate environment.
  • Recognise the basic phonological and lexical system and understand basic oral expressions related to their specific, immediate environment, and be able to write a short text of 350 Chinese characters.
  • Use the phonological and lexical system correctly to produce basic oral expressions related to their specific, immediate environment.
  • Have developed good linguistic and cultural knowledge about modern Chinese.

Competences

  • Analyse the phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic properties of the Spanish language and the Mandarin Chinese language.
  • Demonstrate the capacity to work autonomously, engaging in self-analysis and self. Criticism.
  • Describe the linguistic foundations on which the standards of Spanish and mandarin Chinese are based.
  • Produce written texts in Mandarin Chinese at a basic level (A1, A2).
  • Students must be capable of communicating information, ideas, problems and solutions to both specialised and non-specialised audiences.
  • Students must develop the necessary learning skills to undertake further training with a high degree of autonomy.
  • Take sex- or gender-based inequalities into consideration when operating within one's own area of knowledge.
  • Understand and produce spoken texts in Mandarin Chinese at a basic level (A1, A2)
  • Understand written texts in mandarin Chinese at a basic level. (A1, A2).

Learning Outcomes

  1. Apply lexical, morphosyntactic, textual and rhetorical knowledge and knowledge of linguistic variation.
  2. Apply strategies for producing written texts at a basic level (A1, A2) in different fields and with different specific communicative purposes.
  3. Apply strategies to produce spoken texts in different fields and for different specific communicative purposes.
  4. Apply strategies to understand written texts in different fields at a basic level (A1, A2).
  5. Communicate using language that is not sexist or discriminatory.
  6. Consider how gender stereotypes and roles impinge on the exercise of the profession.
  7. Describe Chinese writing according to the different types of characters.
  8. Describe linguistic aspects of Chinese using a non-specialist informative tone.
  9. Describe linguistic aspects of Chinese using specialised terminology.
  10. Ensure quality standards for your own work.
  11. Identify tools and instruments for autonomous learning of the Chinese language and to solve linguistic problems.
  12. Recognise basic structures in Chinese and describe them using adequate terminology.
  13. Recognise the communicative intention and meaning of spoken texts in different field at a basic level (A1, A2).
  14. Recognise the communicative intention and meaning of written texts in different field at a basic level (A1, A2).
  15. Resolve interferences between working languages.
  16. Solve problems of intercultural communication.

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 characters in traditional Chinese
  • practice of typing Chinese in electronic devices

Lexical and morphological:

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

 

Grammar (morphosyntactic level): 

  • the complement of degree
  • topic-comment sentences
  • uses of the particle 了
  • different kinds of comparisons
  • expression of the future with the auxiliaries 要 or 会
  • the progressive aspect
  • sequential sentences
  • time clauses with 以后 and 的 时候
  • expressing possession, existence, or location with 有
  • passive sentences with 被ç
  • emphatic sentences with 是 ... .... 的
  • the result complement

Communicative and sociocultural:

  • talking about daily routines
  • talking about the weather and the seasons
  • describing clothes
  • describing parts of a house
  • talking about the Chinese New Year
  • talking about transportation
  • expressing distances and giving directions
  • checking-in at a hotel
  • describing a room
  • talking about everyday life objects
  • understanding rules and signs

Encyclopaedic and instrumental:

  • basic general knowledge about the Chinese language
  • introduction to certain aspects of Chinese culture directly or indirectly related to the language mastering, such as festivals (e.g. Chinese New Year), Tang Dynasty poetry, or paper-cutting crafts
  • non-verbal communication (e.g. gifts)

Methodology

Training activities are divided into directed, supervised, autonomous and assessment activities. 

 
Directed activities (90 hours): explanations of each unit's most important content, written and oral comprehension exercises, writing and oral expression exercises, practice of grammar points and new vocabulary, sight translation, dictation, review of previous content, clarifying general doubts, etc. Approximately 15 hours will be spent on each teaching unit. Classroom activities will be varied and of different types (oral and written, individual and group). 
 
Supervised activities (51 hours): writing and oral expression and comprehension exercises. 
 
Autonomous activities (around 150 hours): writing of characters, study of characters and vocabulary, preparation and revision of texts and new grammar points, exercises and self-assessment thereof (via the teaching web). 
 
It is important that students attend class regularly, and essential that they consistently study new content in advance, carry out exercises and review previous content. It is assumed that they will do so in order to keep up with the pace of the subject. Assessment (28 hours) will comprise classroom exams and directed activities (teaching portfolio). 

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      
Exercises 25 1 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 11, 12, 14, 13, 15, 16, 6, 10
Lectures 20 0.8 5, 8, 9, 7, 12, 16, 6
Listening and speaking activities 15 0.6 3, 5, 13, 16
Vocabulary tests 11 0.44 1, 7
Writing 15 0.6 1, 2, 5, 11, 10
Written comprehension 15 0.6 1, 4, 11, 12, 14
Type: Supervised      
Preparation of activities of reading comprehension 15 0.6 1, 4, 8, 9, 7, 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, 6, 10
Preparation of writing activities 6 0.24 1, 2, 7, 11, 12, 15, 16, 10
Type: Autonomous      
Exercises 70 2.8 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 11, 12, 14, 13, 15, 16, 6, 10
Preparation of new contents 20 0.8 3, 8, 9, 7, 11, 12
Reading comprenension 20 0.8 4, 11, 14
Revision of contents 20 0.8 1, 3, 8, 9, 7, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 10
Writing 20 0.8 1, 2, 5, 7, 11, 12, 16, 10

Assessment

The subject's (formative and summative) assessment activities will be as follows:

1.1. Teaching portfolio (30%): each teaching unit will include vocabulary tests and written exercises.

The teaching portfolio will represent 70% of the final mark, based on: vocabulary tests & short written exercises.

1.2. Exams (70%): students will take two exams worth 70% of the final mark (35% each), the first in the middle of the semester and the second at the end.

 

Related matters

All 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 in 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.

The portfolio cannot be retaken or compensated for. 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'sfinal 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
Exams 70% 8 0.32 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 12, 14, 13, 15, 16, 10
Teaching portfolio 30% 20 0.8 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 11, 12, 14, 13, 15, 16, 6, 10

Bibliography

Textbook:

Qi Shaoyan, Zhang Jie (2011) Discover ChinaStudent's book Two + workbook. Oxford: Macmillan Education; Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Reference material:

Álvarez, José Ramón. 2000. La pronunciación del chino hablado (putonghua) para hispanohablantes. Taipei: Lanbridge Press cop. 

Casas-Tost, Helena; Rovira-Esteva, Sara (Eds.). 2015/2021. Guia d’estil per al tractament de mots xinesos en català. Generalitat de Catalunya. Departament de Cultura. Biblioteca tècnica de política lingüística, 2. ISBN: 978-84-393-9241-5. DOI: 10.2436/15.8040.02.1. URL: https://ddd.uab.cat/record/133473

Casas-Tost, Helena; Rovira-Esteva, Sara (Eds.). 2015. Guía de estilo para el uso de palabras de origen chino. Madrid: Adeli. URL: https://ddd.uab.cat/record/180644 

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

Ross, Claudia;Sheng, Jing-Heng. 2006. Modern Chinese grammar: a practical guide. New York: Routledge. 

Yip, Po-ching; Rimmington, Don. 2014. Gramática básica del chino. Madrid:Adeli Ediciones. 

Yip, Po-ching; Rimmington, Don. 2015. Gramática intermedia del chino. Madrid: Adeli Ediciones. 

Other books:

Rovira-Esteva, Sara. 2010. Lengua y escritura chinas. Mitos y realidades. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra.

Vicente, Sergi. 2018. Xina Fast Forward. Barcelona: AraLlibres. (también en castellano) 

Online resources:

eChinese Tools: Mil y una herramientas para aprender chino: https://dtieao.uab.cat/txicc/echinese/  

 

Software

  • eChinese Tools: Mil y una herramientas para aprender chino: https://dtieao.uab.cat/txicc/echinese/  (database with online resources to learn Chinese).