B004672 - CHINESE LANGUAGE 1 (12 CFU)

Chinese and Italian

The course introduces the general characteristics of modern Standard Chinese, its phonological system, its writing system and its most elementary syntactic structures. The course also presents to the students a vocabulary of 400 different Chinese characters, chosen among the most frequently used.(level HSK2/A2)

Federico Masini, Bai Hua, Anna Di Toro, Zhang Tongbing, Liang Dongmei, Il cinese per gli italiani - vol. I , HOEPLI EDITORE; Tiziana Lioi, Andrea De Benedittis, Introduzione alla scrittura cinese, HOEPLI EDITORE. All the materials presented during the class and then publish on the MOODLE platform are considered part of the bibliography for the final exam.

1) Knowledge and understanding: the course aims to provide a basic knowledge of the fundamental features of Modern Standard Chinese, by eliciting a metalinguistic reflection on such language, also in a comparison with the Italian language.
2) Applying knowledge and understanding: At the end of the course, the student understands and uses daily expressions and basic sentences aimed at satisfying practical needs. The level reached through this course is similar to A2 (CEFR), HSK2.
3) Making judgements: At the end of the course the student is information able to draw information about Chinese lexicon, phonology and syntax from electronic dictionaries, reference texts and specific apps.
4) Communication skills: At the end of the course, the studenti s able to communicate in Chinese in simple every day activities that require an exchange of information on familiar and common topics.
5) Learning skills: At the end of the course, the student is able to use specific apps and online resources to independently exercise Chinese language. They can also get in touch with Chinese native speaking students with whom they can experiment forms of shared and reciprocal learning.

A basic knowledge of Italian and of its main formal characteristics is required for this course. The entrance level of Chinese is absolute beginner.

frontal class, group and pair exercises.

besides the classes with the appointed professor, the student is required to attend the classes with the Chinese native speaking instructor, that are part of the course.
The HSK level reached after this course is HSK2.

The final exam consists of a mid term and a final written tests, that, if passed, allows the student to have access to the oral test. Those who do not pass the mid term written test or the final written test are allowed to take an extra written test that includes both the midterm and the final tests. Such extra test is offered once at every session. Only those who pass either the two smaller written tests or the long extra written test are allowed to take the oral test. The dates of the midterm, final and extra written tests will be communicated in class and on the personal page of the professor.
The student who passes both mid term and final written tests must necessarily take the oral test during the summer session. The results of the written mid term and final tests will not be valid in the following sessions. For all the sessions subsequent to the summer session, the students who are interested in participating will have to take the long extra written test of that specific session. The student who take the long extra written test must always take the oral test in the same session, as the written and oral tests are two parts of the same exam. The written tests consists in some grammar quizzes, a reading comprehension quiz, a short translation from Chinese to Italian and a short translation from Italian to Chinese.
The oral test consists of two parts. For the first part the student is asked to read, translate and comment one of the texts featured in the manual used during the course, then they are asked to answer about three questions in Chinese about topics that are familiar to the student. For the second part the student is asked to answer about two questions about the formal characteristics of Modern Chinese, as they were covered during the course. It is necessary to show a sufficient level of preparation in all the parts of the exam to pass the exam. The final grades will take into account the results in all the parts of the exam
The exam is aimed at ascertaining:
- The knowledge of the formal characteristics of Modern standard Chinese also in comparison with Italian.
- The competence in comprehending texts and elementary sentences commonly used in Chinese.
- The skill of communicating in Chinese language through a simple exchange of information on familiar and common topics.

During the course, the general characteristics of Modern Chinese and its most common use will be presented to the students. During the course the students will be presented with a vocabulary of about 800 different Chinese characters, among the most frequently used ones. The following is a list of the fundamental formal elements of Modern Standard Chinese that will be covered during the course: Chinese phonological system, tones, syllables; Chinese writing system, characters, radicals; the phrase structure in Chinese, the word order; the adjective in Chinese; the classifiers; types of predicates; the affirmative, negative and interrogative phrase; verbs with two objects, serial verbs, verbs with internal object, modal auxiliaries; the modal particle le; the locative phrases.

4-10-16