COURSE OBJECTIVES

"Elementary Chinese I" is the beginning class of a yearlong study designed for students with no previous knowledge (or less than one year) of Chinese; it introduces students to the official Chinese language called "Mandarin” by English speakers, putonghua in the People's Republic of China, and Kuo-yu in Taiwan. The course aims to help students obtain an adequate grasp of basic language skills in both spoken and written Chinese and lay a good foundation for further study of this language. Upon completion of the yearlong course (Elementary Chinese I & II), students will have mastered a set of essential sentence patterns, approximately seven hundred Chinese characters and a vocabulary of more than 1,000 words. At such a proficiency level, students will be able to talk with native Chinese speakers in daily-life settings, write on simple topics, and travel with relative independence in China and other Chinese-speaking areas. In addition, this course will help students to achieve a better awareness of Chinese culture and society, which will form an important aspect of a truly global perspective expected of today’s college graduates.

COURSE ORGANIZATION

A Daily Schedule of each lesson detailing what we shall accomplish in each class will be distributed online at our Blackboard course site (in the "Syllabus" folder). Except for the part of "Introduction" on pronunciation and character-writing, we will spend approximately seven classes on each lesson in the major textbook. That will allow us to complete nine lessons in the textbook. For each lesson we will study the new vocabulary items, grammar notes and sentence patterns, and we will learn to use them in different life-like situations. Students will be actively engaged in the learning process through various kinds of in-class or online exercises, which include vocabulary dictations, pattern drills, listening comprehension exercises, reading practice, situational dialogue, role-play, and language games, etc. Assignments will be given to students for each lesson, mostly from the accompanying Workbook. Each lesson will involve two mini-quizzes, usually in the form of dictation, and will end up with a comprehensive written test designed to help students to effectively re-digest what they have learned in this lesson.

ONLINE STUDY

We will take advantage of Blackboard, the FSU-supported distance learning platform, to enhance our study of Chinese. Besides utilizing the online multimedia-hypertextual facilities of Blackboard for daily practice and exercises, each week we will have one class meeting (mostly Friday class) conducted online at our Blackboard course site. Such online study, apart from helping with language learning, will also give students valuable experience in basic skills in Chinese computing, such as word processing, e-mailing, and reading online in Chinese.

Important: students are required to obtain a user account and password for FSU network as soon as possible (no later than the end of the first week) in order to access the online material at our Blackboard course site.

EVALUATION

In addition to the quizzes and test for each lesson, we will have a final exam consisting of both oral and written elements. Adequate emphasis will also be placed on classroom participation (including online class activities), since it is often a reliable index of a student? general attitude and level of preparedness. Here is the breakdown of the course grading, which will be eventually converted into letter grade for your final grade on this course:

ATTENDANCE AND REQUIREMENTS

Attendance is mandatory. No absence will be excused unless it falls into one of these four categories: 1) religious observance, 2) university-sponsored athletic or scholastic activity (official absence form required), 3) illness (doctor's note required), or 4) death in the immediate family. A student who incurs an absence should present the written permission to be excused from class no later than two weeks from the day of the missed class and make up all work missed during the absence. After two unexcused absences, each additional unexcused absence will cause the deduction of one point from your percent score.

This course adheres to the Academic Honor Code as described in the Student Handbook. Students with disabilities needing academic accommodations should register with the Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) and bring a letter from the SDRC to the instructor. This should be done in the first week of class.  

COURSE MATERIALS

1. Yao, Tao-chung et al. Integrated Chinese: Textbook, Level 1 Part 1. Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 1997 (Available at the Florida State University Bookstore).

2. ---. Integrated Chinese: Workbook.

3. ---. Integrated Chinese: Character Workbook.

4. Boping Yuan, The Oxford Starter Chinese Dictionary. New York: Oxford University Press (Available at the FSU Bookstore and Bill’s Bookstore).

5. Audio tapes for the text are available both online (preferable) and in the Language Lab (130 DIF).

6. Supplementary materials will be distributed either online or in class.  

7. Useful online recourses for learning Chinese are available through external links in the "Course Material" folder at the Blackboard site of this course.