Teaching code

4S003689

Credits

9

Coordinator

Michele Mannoni

Language

Italian

Scientific Disciplinary Sector (SSD)

L-OR/21 - CHINESE AND SOUTH ASIAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

Moodle Seminars 0

The teaching is organized as follows:

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course students should demonstrate that they possess a practical knowledge of modern Chinese grammar and lexicon, enough for them to communicate independently on simple topics. Their knowledge of Chinese lexicon and grammar will be enhanced, as well as basic communicative skills, in particular listening, reading, written and oral production. Moreover, another aim of the course is to let students acquire an active and passive knowledge of a wider lexicon, with particular attention to specific terms from the domains of trade, business and tourism. At the end of the course, students will reach a level of linguistic knowledge and a vocabulary required for an HSK3 certificate, corresponding to the B1 level in the international language standards.

Program

The course is divided in two modules (Mod. 1 and Mod. 2), one each semester.

The course aims to focus on Units 19 to 34 of the book by M. Abbiati and Z. Ruoying «Dialogare in Cinese», volumes 1 and 2. Grammar teacher is going to lecture students on the syntactic structures shown in the said units. Grammar notes and grammar exercises present in the book written by C. Romagnoli et al. are also going to be addressed, as well as more equipment and exercises uploaded by the teacher on the Moodle platform. Students have to individually look for and study the relevant grammar notions found in the book “Yufa! A Practical Guide to Mandarin Chinese Grammar” by TENG Wen-hua (2011). Students are expected to choose which parts of the book they need to study by using the table of contents. This has to be done consistently throughout the course.

For both modules, during classes taught by native Mandarin teacher, students are going to learn the words shown in the units of the book and how to use them (措辞) with a contrastive perspective with respect to the Italian language. In the same time they are going to actively exercise the use of syntactic structures taught by the grammar teacher. With native Mandarin teacher, students are going to improve their speaking skills (会话) and listening skills (听力) of HSK3-level-alike oral texts.

Reference materials:
- Compulsory: see below relevant section;
- Suggested:
• PLECO – App. gratuita for iPhone, iPad, Android
• WENLIN –Software for Learning Chinese, Wenlin Institute (www.wenlin.com)
• Abbiati, Magda (2011) “Grammatica di cinese moderno”. Venezia: Libreria Editrice Cafoscarina.
• Casacchia, Giorgio; Bai Yukun (2013). “Dizionario Cinese-Italiano”. Venezia: Cafoscarina. [solo cinese-italiano]
• Zhao Xiuying (a cura di) (2013). “Il dizionario di cinese”. Bologna: Zanichelli.
• Zhang Shihua (a cura di) (2007). “Dizionario di cinese”. Milano: Hoepli.
• Dizionari cinese-inglese consigliati: 中英词典. Lin Yuan (ed.) (2002). “The Contemporary Chinese Dictionary”. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
• Hui Yu (ed.) (2004). “A New Century Chinese-English Dictionary”. Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
• Martin Manser (Ed.). “Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary (4th Edition) (English and Chinese Edition)”. Flexibound.

Bibliography

Examination Methods

The final exam consists of three parts: (A-语法和翻译) written test containing linguistics questions, composition exercises and, translation of key-sentences that are grammatically relevant, etc.; (B-听力和听写) HSK3-level-alike listening test; (C-会话) conversation in Mandarin. Each test composing the exam has a maximum score of 10. It is necessary to obtain at least 6 points out of 10 in each test in order to pass the exam. Each of the three tests have to be passed during the same exam session: whoever intends or has to retake the exam is allowed to do so by retaking all the three tests of which exam is made of (i.e., writing, oral, listening). Final mark is out of thirty. HSK certificates does not replace this exam, neither in whole nor in part. At the end of the first semester, i.e. during the January-February 2020 exam session, there will be an intermediate exam (whose grade will not be registered) about the first half of the course program. The intermediate exam has the same format as said final exam. The intermediate exam similarly consists of three parts and it is necessary to pass each of them (6 out of 10) to pass the exam. Those who pass the intermediate exam are allowed to be tested only on the second part of the course program during the final exam, and the final mark will be the arithmetic mean of the two grades. Those who do not pass the intermediate exam will be tested on the whole program during the final exam. In case a student refuses the grade of the intermediate exam, they have to communicate their decision by sending an email from their institutional account to that of their teacher's no later than a week from the date of publication of the grades on the e-learning page of this course. The intermediate exam is valid for one year only, i.e. until the second exam session of January-February 2021. Attendance is mandatory, therefore students have attende at least 60% of the taught classes to be entitled to take the exam. Students having an attendance rate ranging between 60% and 75% will have to take an additional test, which may also consist in an oral test on topics previously agreed with the teacher. In order to justify students' absence, valid reasons (such as study-related ones, illness, mandatory internships, HSK 3 certificates or higher) will be considered only if duly documented. Any such certificates have to be provided to the teacher before the exam.