Course Syllabus

CHIN 1020 Elementary Chinese II

Course Description

This course is a continuation of CHIN 1010 and provides additional exposure to the Chinese language and the cultures of Chinese-speaking peoples. It is designed for students who have completed CHIN 1010 with a C- or better, or for students with equivalent experience. During the course, students continue to develop basic oral and listening communication skills by participating in activities that require them to use Chinese in a variety of situations. As a result of developing these skills, they also acquire the ability to read and write Chinese at a basic level. Students learn to communicate about topics that are most familiar to them (e.g., self, family, home, school, daily and recent activities), and they learn to appreciate ways of life different from their own. This course is interactive with a focus on learner participation, basic conversation practice in Chinese, and additional focus on reading and writing. Successful completion of this course fulfills the foreign language requirement for the A.A. degree at Snow College.

Justification

This course satisfies the foreign language requirement for the Associate of Arts degree at Snow College. It is also a prerequisite for intermediate and advanced study of the language. Students are introduced to the language, cultures, and values of Chinese-speaking peoples, one of the largest linguistic groups in the world and a major contributor to Western thought and culture. Learning Chinese, particularly in combination with studies in other fields, such as art, music, philosophy, history, business, medicine, political science, social science, and technology, can provide a valuable and employable life resource.

General Education Outcomes

1. A student who completes the GE curriculum has a fundamental knowledge of human cultures and the natural world. Students continue to demonstrate fundamental knowledge of sinophone cultures through in-class presentations that include research on specific cultural topics or practices and a description/demonstration of an aspect of one or several of these cultures (e.g., cooking, music, games, dance, art, architecture).
2. A student who completes the GE curriculum can read and research effectively within disciplines. Students are exposed to Chinese language and sinophone cultures through video, text, and audio sources on the Internet and through music. They demonstrate their ability to read and interpret Chinese texts through structured online tasks, as well as written homework assignments and written quizzes and exams, and subsequently evaluate its meaning and cultural significance.
3. A student who completes the GE curriculum can draw from multiple disciplines to address complex problems. Students continue to experience perspectives different from their own and learn through readings, discussions, and their own research how people from other countries and regions of the world address problems in unique ways that meet their needs. These experiences allow students to draw on international perspectives when facing complex problems. Students are assessed during in-class discussions, on homework assignments, and on written quizzes and exams.
4. A student who completes the GE curriculum can reason analytically, critically, and creatively. Students continue to increase their capacity and critical thinking skills as they learn Chinese, where they must draw clues based on their own experience from the aural and visual input they receive. Students complete verbal and written assignments that demonstrate the ability to reason analytically and creatively evaluate the cultures, facts, and values of sinophone peoples. Students are assessed during in-class discussions, on homework assignments, and on written quizzes and exams.

General Education Knowledge Area Outcomes

1. Students must work with partners to complete brief conversation exercises in Chinese during class. Students have pair/group work and presentation(s) for the Chinese language and cultures on a regular basis, in class, to learn the skill of effective team work and oral communication. Students demonstrate this skill throughout their pair/group activities and presentations in class. Students demonstrate their ability to read and write in Chinese through Canvas exercises and in-class written exams. Students must work with partners to complete brief conversation exercises in Chinese during class. Students have pair/group work and presentation(s) for the Chinese language and cultures on a regular basis, in class, to learn the skill of effective team work and oral communication. Students demonstrate this skill throughout their pair/group activities and presentations in class. Students demonstrate their ability to read and write in Chinese through Canvas exercises and in-class written exams.

Student Learning Outcomes

1. Interpretive Listening: Students will understand everyday Chinese words and phrases. They will be able to answer questions about themselves, their personal experiences, and their surroundings with greater capacity.
2. Interpretive Reading: Students will understand familiar words, phrases, and some more advanced sentences, building upon those reading skills acquired in CHIN 1010.
3. Interpersonal Spoken: Students will interact with each other using words, phrases, and some memorized expressions. They wil be able to answer simple questions on familiar topics and form questions to create a more realistic dialogue, while expanding the range of their ability beyond the beginner level. They will be capable of describing events not only in the present, but in the past as well, with the ability to speak with anticipation of future events, as well as conjecture upon things that would happen given a certain set of circumstances.
4. Presentational Spoken: Students will provide information about themselves and their immediate surroundings using words, phrases, and some memorized expressions. They will aslo acquire information from others by forming proper sentences and questions, including topics that address events in the present, past, and future.
5. Presentational Written: Students will provide some basic information on familiar topics in lists, phrases, and memorized expressions.
6. Cultural Opportunities: Students will seek opportunities to learn about and experience new cultures outside of class.
7. Cultural Understanding: Students will demonstrate a basic knowledge of cultural traditions, customs, and values in one or more Chinese-speaking countries.

Course Content

Through lecture, one-on-one sessions with the instructor, class discussion, and activities, students will learn and demonstrate: basic interactions like greetings, asking and answering questions, describing people and things, expressing preferences, inviting, accepting, refusing, making purchases, giving directions, requesting information, telling time, and recounting past events; interpretation of basic or simplified texts (e.g., calendars, biographical information, menus, cultural information, poems/songs, maps, advertisements, film reviews, instructions, schedules, websites, surveys); basic expressions and vocabulary (e.g., greetings, school, home, family, possessions, numbers, days, months, public buildings, food, weather, sports); demonstrative adjectives and pronouns, future tense, imperfect tense, passive constructions, present perfect tense, preterit tense of irregular verbs, the subjunctive mood, and the use of prepositions; agreement (e.g., subject-verb, adjective-noun); cultural practices and products of China (e.g., food, music, transportation, film, housing, media); cultural perspectives in China; regional identities; and daily life in China. This content is delivered through interactive lecture, multimedia presentation, partner and group work, and instructor modeling of concepts. This course addresses cultural differences overtly during cultural lessons (see topics above) and indirectly via images presented to the class during everyday lessons that represent Chinese-speaking people from different ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations, abilities, etc.