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Chinese III: Foundations for Communication in Chinese

Code: 105863 ECTS Credits: 12
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2504012 Spanish and Chinese Studies: Language, Literature and Culture OB 2

Contact

Name:
Shu-Ching Liao Pan
Email:
shuching.liao@uab.cat

Teaching groups languages

You can view this information at the end of this document.


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.
  • 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. Produce spoken texts at a basic level (A1, A2) (A1, A2) in different fields and for different specific communicative purposes.
  12. Produce spoken texts at a basic level (A1, A2) that are linguistically correct and appropriate to the context.
  13. Recognise basic structures in Chinese and describe them using adequate terminology.
  14. Recognise the communicative intention and meaning of spoken texts in different field at a basic level (A1, A2).
  15. Recognise the communicative intention and meaning of written texts in different field at a basic level (A1, A2).
  16. Resolve interferences between working languages.
  17. 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)

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Exercises 10 0.4 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 13, 15, 14, 16, 17, 6, 10
Lectures 26 1.04 5, 8, 9, 7, 13, 17, 6
Listening and speaking activities 20 0.8 2, 3, 5, 12, 11, 14, 17
Vocabulary tests 10 0.4 1, 7
Writing 10 0.4 1, 2, 5, 10
Written comprehension 15 0.6 1, 4, 13, 15
Type: Supervised      
Preparation of activities of reading and listening comprehension 15 0.6 1, 4, 8, 9, 7, 13, 15, 16, 17, 6, 10
Preparation of writing and listening activities 6 0.24 1, 4, 2, 7, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 10
Type: Autonomous      
Exercises 70 2.8 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 13, 15, 14, 16, 17, 6, 10
Preparation of new contents 20 0.8 3, 8, 9, 7, 13
Reading comprenension 20 0.8 4, 15
Revision of contents 20 0.8 1, 3, 8, 9, 7, 13, 14, 16, 17, 10
Writing 20 0.8 1, 2, 5, 7, 13, 17, 10

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.


Assessment

Continous Assessment Activities

Title Weighting Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Exams 60% 8 0.32 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 12, 11, 13, 15, 14, 16, 17, 10
Teaching portfolio 40% 30 1.2 1, 4, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 7, 13, 15, 14, 16, 17, 6, 10

Continuous assessment

Students must provide evidence of their progress by completing various tasks and tests. These activities are detailed in the table at the end of this section of the Study Guide.

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 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. Under no circumstances may an assessment activity worth 100% of the final mark be retaken or compensated for. In case of retaking, maximum grade will be 5 (Pass).

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 student involved will be given a final mark of “0” for the subject. Assessment activities in which irregularities have occurred (e.g. plagiarism, copying, impersonation) are excluded from recovery.

Single assessment

This subject may be assessed under the single assessment system in accordance with the terms established in the academic regulations of the UAB and the assessment criteria of the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting.

Students must make an online request within the period established by the faculty and send a copy to the teacher responsible for the subject, for the record.

Single assessment will be carried out in person on one day during week 16 or 17 of the semester. The Academic Management Office will publish the exact date and time on the faculty website. 

On the day of the single assessment, teaching staff will ask the student for identification, which should be presented as a valid identification document with a recent photograph (student card, DNI/NIE or passport).

Single assessment will include a minimum of three assessment activities of different typology, as stated in the evaluation guidelines.

Grade revision and resit procedures for the subject are the same as those for continual assessment. See the section above in this study guide.

 


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. 

Zhu, Yongping; Huang, Chu-Ren. 2023. A Student Grammar of Chinese. Cambridge University Press.

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). 
  • Moodle

Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Catalan first semester morning-mixed