Chinese (First Language) Unit 1 and 2

Prerequisites

Chinese (First Language) is designed for students who have typically spent some time as a resident and/or have had some experience of studying Chinese in a country in which Chinese is a major language of communication.

Course Description

The aims of the units are to develop:

the student's ability to use Chinese to communicate with others;
the student's understanding and appreciation of their own and other cultures;
the student's understanding of language as a system;
the student's potential to apply Chinese to work, further study, training or leisure.

Areas of Study

Themes and Topics

Self and Others: personal world, personal beliefs and ideals, contributing to community.
Tradition and Change in Chinese-speaking Communities: lifestyles, arts and entertainment, stories from the past.
Global Issues: peace, human rights, the nature and future of work.

Grammar and Vocabulary

The formal aspects of language such as phonology, orthography, syntax, morphology and semantics.
Whilst there is no prescribed vocabulary list, it is expected that the student is familiar with a range of vocabulary and idioms relevant to the topics; students are encouraged to use dictionaries.

Kinds of Writing

Students are expected to be familiar with and be able to produce five kinds of writing: personal, informative, persuasive, evaluative and imaginative.

Assessment

Unit 1 Outcomes	Assessment Tasks
Unit 1 Outcomes	(school-assessed coursework)
Establish and maintain a spoken or written exchange related to an issue of interest or concern.	Discussion or personal letter/fax/email.
Listen to, read and reorganise information from written and spoken texts.	Read a written text and extract and use information and ideas in a different text type.Listen to a spoken text and extract and use information and ideas in a different text type.
Produce a personal response to a fictional text.	Oral presentation, review or article.

Unit 2 Outcomes	Assessment Tasks
Unit 2 Outcomes	(school-assessed coursework)
Participate in a spoken or written exchange focussing on the resolution of an issue.	Role play or formal letter/fax/email.
Read, listen to and extract and compare information and ideas from written and spoken texts.	Read two or more spoken texts and compare information and ideas obtained. Listen to two or more spoken texts and compare information and ideas obtained.
Produce an imaginative piece in written or spoken form.	Journal entry, spoken personal account or short story.

Overall Final Assessment

End of Semester Oral Examination.

End of Semester Examination – 2 hours.