CHINESE LANGUAGE 2 MOD.1

The Chinese language module 2-1 is one of the courses characterizing the Bachelor’s Degree Programme in Languages, cultures and societies of Asia and North Africa. It aims to provide students with elementary tools and skills in the language and translation fields. The goal is to make them possible to apply their language skills and abilities in the most common communicative situations, as well as in reading and understanding texts of a certain difficulty, so as to make it a key tool to start acquiring a solid knowledge of Chinese culture and society.

Achieve a level of language proficiency equivalent to level A2+ of the CEFR (Common European framework of reference for language proficiency). In particular:
1. Knowledge and understanding
• Know the key sentences necessary to interact in the most common communicative contexts.
• Know grammatical and lexical aspects of particular importance concerning the nominal groups, the fundamental structure of the sentence, the prepositional groups, the different types of sentences and the verbal groups.
• Know a lexicon of about 1000 words and 800 characters (active competence).
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
• Be able to correctly use the key sentences necessary to interact in the most common communicative situations.
• Be able to use properly what has been learned on important grammatical and lexical aspects in order to understand written texts.
• Be able to use in writing a lexicon of about 1000 words and 600 characters.
• Be able to translate into Chinese simple sentences using correctly what has been learned about basic grammatical aspects.
3. Judgement capacity
• Know how to use the tools made available online to evaluate your level of knowledge and language skills.
4. Communication skills
• Be able to communicate the specificities of linguistic analysis using appropriate terminology.
5. Learning skills
• Know how to relate the different contexts of study and apply your knowledge and skills for personal and professional growth.

• To attend the course, students must have a very good theoretical and practical knowledge of the Italian language: they must be able to express themselves correctly both in writing and in oral form, and master the tools of grammatical analysis and logical analysis.
• To access the exam tests, students must have passed the Chinese language 1 exam.

The course provides students with an overall knowledge, at an elementary level, of written and spoken modern Chinese. In particular it offers:
• presentation of grammatical and lexical aspects of particular importance on nominal groups, on the fundamental structure of the sentence, on prepositional groups, different types of sentences and verbal groups: 30 hours of theory and practice;
• training for linguistic interaction in the most common communicative situations: 60 hours of practice A (conversation);
• conversation tutoring: practice B;

Compulsory texts
• Abbiati M., Grammatica di cinese moderno, Cafoscarina, Venezia 1998.
• Abbiati M., Materiali ed esercizi per l'apprendimento della grammatica cinese moderna, Cafoscarina, Venezia 2010 (also available on the website https://moodle.unive.it/ in the section “Lingua cinese 1 mod. 1 Cognomi A-C [LT0071] - prof.ssa M. Abbiati”, where other grammar exercises are also available. Moreover, further grammar exercises and active translation exercises are available on the Centro Multimediale website http://www.unive.it/cmm ).
• Abbiati M. and Zhang Ruoying, Dialogare in cinese: corso di lingua colloquiale, vol. 1, Cafoscarina, Venezia 2010. Listening exercises are also available on the website https://moodle.unive.it/ in the section “Lingua cinese 1 mod. 1 Cognomi A-C [LT0071] - prof.ssa M. Abbiati”.
• Abbiati M. and Chen Liansheng, Caratteri cinesi, Cafoscarina, Venezia 2001. Writing exercises are also available on the Centro Multimediale website http://www.unive.it/cmm .
• Zhao Xiuying, Il dizionario di Cinese. Dizionario Cinese-Italiano, Italiano-Cinese, Zanichelli, Bologna 2013; or Dizionario cinese-italiano italiano-cinese, Hoepli, Milano 2007; or Zhao Xiuying and Gatti F., Dizionario compatto cinese-italiano italiano-cinese e conversazioni, Zanichelli Bologna 1996; or Wenlin Software for Learning Chinese, 4.2.2 (per Windows e Mac), that can be purchased at the site www.wenlin.com; or Pleco Software (for iPhone/iPad and Android), that can be downloaded for free from the site www.pleco.com.

Supplementary readings
• Abbiati M., La lingua cinese, Cafoscarina, Venezia 1992 or Abbiati M., Guida alla lingua cinese, Carocci, Roma 2008.

This is a two terms course. The first term exam consists of two written tests, a grammatical test and a listening comprehension one. A facsimile of the two tests is available on the website https://moodle.unive.it/ in the section “Lingua cinese 2 mod. 1 Cognomi A-C [LT007I] - prof.ssa M. Abbiati”. The use of dictionaries is not permitted. To pass the exam it is necessary to obtain a minimum mark of 12/20 in the grammatical test and a minimum mark of 12/20 in the listening comprehension test. Students get 18 credits by passing both the first term exam and the second term exam.

Teaching is organized in:
a) front lessons;
b) writing and conversation practice aimed at building and consolidating the knowledge, skills and competences necessary to meet the goal of the course;
c) tutoring aimed at discussing and clarifying specific language problems that emerged during the teaching and the related practice.

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