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Chinese VIII: Comprehension and Production of Oral and Written Texts

Code: 105872 ECTS Credits: 6
2024/2025
Degree Type Year
2504012 Spanish and Chinese Studies: Language, Literature and Culture OB 4

Contact

Name:
Xiaoyan Guo
Email:
xiaoyan.guo@uab.cat

Teachers

Mireia Vargas Urpi

Teaching groups languages

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


Prerequisites

The subject is the continuation of the previous subject (Chinese VII). It is a subject of consolidation, development and improvement, which requires knowledge of all the basic aspects of phonetics, grammar and the structure of characters and writing, therefore it is recommended to have passed the previous Chinese subjects. 


Objectives and Contextualisation

The subject aims to consolidate and expand knowledge of the structures of the Chinese language, as a complement to the basic knowledge acquired in the first, second and third year. The objectives of this term are mainly:

- To consolidate and expand the basic knowledge of Chinese grammar acquired in first, second and third courses

- To expand vocabulary

- To improve pronunciation and writing

- To develop the ability to read and understand texts in intermediate level Chinese

- To improve oral and written expression

- To better understand and grasp the classification and synthesis of complex structures of the Chinese language

- To expand linguistic and cultural knowledge to better understand the linguistic and social use of modern Chinese in the various countries where it is spoken. 


Competences

  • Analyse the phonetic, phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical and semantic properties of the Spanish language and the Mandarin Chinese language.
  • Compare Spanish and Chinese from a literary and linguistic knowledge of both languages.
  • 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.
  • Evaluate the influence of cultural references in Chinese studies in interlinguistic and intercultural communication.
  • Produce written texts in Mandarin Chinese at an intermediate level (B1, B2).
  • Students must be capable of collecting and interpreting relevant data (usually within their area of study) in order to make statements that reflect social, scientific or ethical relevant issues.
  • 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 an intermediate level (B1, B2).
  • Understand texts written in Mandarin Chinese at an intermediate level (B1, B2).

Learning Outcomes

  1. Apply lexical, morphosyntactic, textual and rhetorical knowledge and knowledge of linguistic variation.
  2. Apply strategies for understanding spoken text in different fields at an intermediate level (B1, B2).
  3. Apply strategies for understanding written texts from different fields at an intermediate level (B1, B2).
  4. Apply strategies to acquire cultural knowledge of China to be able to communicate.
  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 linguistic aspects of Chinese using a non-specialist informative tone.
  8. Describe linguistic aspects of Chinese using specialised terminology.
  9. Ensure quality standards for your own work.
  10. Identify the need for cultural knowledge of China to be able to communicate.
  11. Integrate and apply cultural knowledge of China to be able to resolve communication processes.
  12. Integrate cultural knowledge for solving communication problems.
  13. Interpret the communicative intention and meaning of written texts in different subject areas.
  14. Produce spoken texts at an intermediate level (B1, B2) that are appropriate to the context and linguistically correct.
  15. Produce written texts at an intermediate level (B1, B2) that are appropriate to the context and linguistically correct.
  16. Recognise basic structures in Chinese and describe them using adequate terminology.
  17. Resolve interferences between working languages.
  18. Solve problems of intercultural communication.

Content

In this subject, the contents of the book Discover China (vol. 3) will be studied, aiming at developing reading comprehension, as well as oral and written expression skills. Other complementary materials such as stories, Chinese manga, movies, and newspaper articles will also be used to work with real Chinese texts. According to its type, the contents can be grouped into:

Phonological and graphics:

  • Correctly read new words and their tones. Correct frequent pronunciation errors; consolidate the knowledge acquired from previous courses
  • Read Chinese texts correctly and fluently
  • Application of the transcription and pinyin system in learning new Chinese vocabulary
  • Identification of the different components of the characters (semantic keys, phonetic parts), improve writing on the computer.

Morphological lexicon:

  • Recognition and writing of about 200 new Chinese characters 
  • Comprehension and use of an approximate vocabulary of about 400 new words
  • Recognition of about 50 complementary words
  • Rules for forming words in Chinese
  • Exercises to promote the ability to understand different meanings of unknown words in reading
  • Understanding and using new words made up of already known characters

Grammar and structural expressions:

  • Introduction of new elements to form different types of compound sentences
  • Learn the use and different nuances of new adverbs and others already learned previously
  • Learn new frequently used expressions
  • Review of prepositions and introduction of new ones
  • Extension of resultant and potential complements

Functional:

  • Reading and understanding of the main ideas of the text
  • Reading and understanding of supplementary reading materials and answer related questions
  • Reading and understanding of real intermediate level listening materials
  • Social and cultural customs related to the topic of the text
  • Writing up to 800 characters to express one's own opinions on the subject
  • Understanding the comments of classmates related to the topic of the text
  • Writing what can be said in Chinese on the topic with a correct speed
  • Orally express a complete idea that is coherent with basic logic

Activities and Methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning Outcomes
Type: Directed      
Activities to practice listening skills 10 0.4 1, 2, 7, 8, 12, 16, 17, 18
Grammar and vocabulary practice 15 0.6 1, 7, 8, 12, 13, 16, 17
Oral activities 10 0.4 1, 2, 7, 8, 12, 14, 16, 17, 18
Reading activities 10 0.4 1, 3, 7, 8, 12, 13, 16, 17, 18
Type: Supervised      
Reading and oral comprehension activities 15 0.6 2, 3, 12, 13, 16
Writing assignments 15 0.6 9, 12, 15, 17, 18
Type: Autonomous      
Autonomous practice of oral expression 20 0.8 9, 14, 18
Preparation of writing activies 20 0.8 9, 15, 18
Study of new vocabulary and grammar 25 1 1, 7, 8, 16

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 teaching unit, clear up queries of common interest, review the material studied so far. The student will also suggest grammar exercises on each unit and the new vocabulary learnt, as well as tasks involving reading out loud, practising oral and written comprehension, oral expression, etc. At the end of the subject, a session will be devoted to general revision and troubleshooting.

Supervised activities: these will include exercises set by the teacher. Students will need to devote approximately 5 hours to completing the grammar and vocabulary exercises for each unit. 

Autonomous activities: for each teaching unit, will need to devote approximately 15 hours to activities such as reading and preparing the texts, vocabulary and grammar for each lesson, etc.

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
End-of-term exam 40% 2.5 0.1 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Mid-term exam 30% 2.5 0.1 1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Teaching portfolio 30% 5 0.2 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18

Continuous assessment

Students must provide evidence of their progress by completing various tasks and tests. Task deadlines will be indicated in class.

Assessment activities consist of: 

Portfolio (30%)

  • Compositions, group activities, vocabulary tests and other kinds of exercises.

Exams (70%)

  • There will be two exams: one in the middle of the term (30%) and the other one at the end of the term (40%).

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 forjust 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 whichirregularities 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 activities

The final grade for the subject will be calculated according to the following percentages:

Written exam: 40%

Oral skills exam: 30%

Dossier with activities: 30% 

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 (2013). Discover ChinaStudent's book three + 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 on the Virtual Campus.

Reference works:

Casas-Tost, Helena; Rovira-Esteva, Sara; Suárez, Anne-Hélène. 2020. Lengua china para traductores: 学中文,做翻译. Vol I. Bellaterra: Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. (Materials, 188). (6ª ed.).

Casas-Tost, Helena; Rovira-Esteva, Sara; Suárez, Anne-Hélène. 2021. Lengua china para traductores: 学中文,做翻译. Vol II. Bellaterra: Servei de Publicacions de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. (Materials, 198). (6ª ed.).

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.

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

Online resources:

Casas-Tost, Helena; Gay-Punzano, Lourdes; Guo, Xiaoyan; Nie, Lingzhi; Paoliello, Antonio; Rovira-Esteva, Sara; Vargas-Urpí, Mireia. 2024.
e·Chinese Plus: Plataforma para practicar chino. Disponible en: https://dtieao.uab.cat/gelea2lt/echineseplus.


Software

Not required.


Language list

Name Group Language Semester Turn
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Chinese second semester morning-mixed