CHINESE LANGUAGE 1 MOD.1

This course is one of the core educational activities of the Bachelor's Degree Programme in Language, Culture and Society of Asia and Mediterranean Africa. It aims at providing students with the basic tools and skills in the field of language and translation. The goal of this course is to enable students to start applying their language skills and abilities in simple communicative situations, as well as in reading and understanding simple texts, so as to make it a key tool for the acquisition of a solid knowledge of Chinese culture and society.

To achieve a level of language proficiency equivalent to level A1 of the CEFR (Common European framework of reference for language proficiency). Specifically:
1. Knowledge and understanding
• Knowldege of the sounds of Modern Standard Chinese and of its syllabic inventory.
• Knowledge of Hanyu pinyin, i.e. the transcription system in Latin letters of the sounds of the Chinese language.
• Knowledge of the key sentences necessary to interact in basic communicative situations.
• Knowledge of the principles which regulate the stroke order in Chinese writing and of the most common pianpang, fundamental components of the characters.
• Knowledge of the basic aspects of Chinese grammar concerning the noun phrase, fundamental sentence structures, prepositional phrases, different types of sentences and verb phrases.
• Knowledge of the principles for ordering Chinese characters in the main bilingual Chinese dictionaries .
• Mastering a lexicon of about 350 words and 300 characters (active competence).
2. Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
• Be able to correctly articulate the sounds of the standard modern Chinese language.
• Be able to properly use Hanyu pinyin.
• Be able to correctly use the key sentences necessary to interact in elementary communicative situations.
• Be able to write characters correctly.
• Be able to apply what has been learned on basic grammatical aspects in order to understand written texts.
• Be able to use a bilingual Chinese dictionary.
• Be able to use in writing a lexicon of about 350 words and 300 characters.
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.

The course provides students with an overall knowledge, at a beginner level, of written and spoken modern Chinese. In particular it offers:
• grammar basics on the noun phrase, fundamental sentence structures, prepositional phrases, different types of sentences and verb phrases.: 30 hours of theory and practice;
• training for linguistic interaction in simple communicative situations: 60 hours of practice A (conversation);
• training for the use of Chinese characters: 60 hours of practice B (writing);
• conversation tutoring: practice C;
• writing tutoring: practice D.

Compulsory texts
• Abbiati M., Grammatica di cinese moderno, Cafoscarina, Venezia 1998. (Part I, chapters I-V);
• Abbiati M., Materiali ed esercizi per l'apprendimento della grammatica cinese moderna, Cafoscarina, Venezia 2010 (also available online in the section “Lingua cinese 1 mod. 1 Cognomi D-L [LT0061] - Prof.ssa Chiara Cigarini”;
• Abbiati M. e Zhang Ruoying, Dialogare in cinese: corso di lingua colloquiale, vol. 1, Cafoscarina, Venezia 2010 e succ. (Vol. 1, units 1-12);
• Abbiati M. e Chen Liansheng, Caratteri cinesi, Cafoscarina, Venezia 2001 e succ. (Units I-X);

- One of the following dictionaries:
Zhao Xiuying, Il dizionario di Cinese. Dizionario Cinese-Italiano, Italiano-Cinese, Zanichelli, Bologna, 2013;
Dizionario cinese-italiano italiano-cinese, Hoepli, Milano, 2007;
Casacchia G. e Bai Y., Dizionario Cinese-Italiano, Cafoscarina, Venezia, 2013;
Wenlin Software for Learning Chinese, 4.2.2 (for Windows and Mac): www.wenlin.com;
Pleco Software (for iPhone/iPad e Android), available for free download at www.pleco.com.

Supplementary readings
• Abbiati M., La lingua cinese, Cafoscarina, Venezia 1992.
• Claudia Ross and Jing-heng Sheng Ma, Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar - A Practical Guide, Routledge, London and New York, 2006 e succ.
• Claudia Ross, Jing-heng Sheng Ma e Baozhang He, Modern Mandarin Chinese Grammar - Workbook, Routledge, London and New York, 2006 e succ.

This is a two terms course. The first term exam consists of three written test (on grammar basics, listening comprehension and writing skills, respectively). The use of dictionaries is not permitted. To pass the exam it is necessary to obtain a minimum mark of 6/10 in each of the three tests: the final mark for the exam is the sum of the marks obtained in each test.
Since Chinese language 1 is divided into 2 modules, i.e. Chinese language 1 mod. 1 (first semester) and Chinese Language 1 mod. 2 (second semester), and each module is assessed through an exam, the final score of Chinese language 1 will be the average of the marks obtained in the two exams. The 18 credits (CFU) will be awarded upon passing the two exams and obtaining the final mark.
Students must pass the first module exam (Chinese language 1 mod. 1) within the autumn exam session (August-September) of each academic year at the latest, and the second module exam (Chinese language 1 mod. 2) within the winter exam session (January). If you pass the first module exam within the autumn exam session, but fail to pass the second module exam within the winter session, the exam will be incomplete and, thus, failed. It will be then necessary to take again both exams. If students do not pass the first module exam within the autumn exam session in August-September, they can take it again starting from the next winter session, in January, also together with the second module exam.

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

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