COURSE OBJECTIVES

As a follow-up course with CHI 2200, this course on Chinese Grammar and Composition remains aimed at improving students' aural-oral proficiency. In addition, we will also increase emphasis on developing students' reading and writing skills in Chinese. Upon completing this course, students should be able to use authentic materials of reasonable degree of difficulty and to write simple compositions in Chinese characters.

We will continue the regimen, as established in the last semester, of daily practice in oral-aural skills as well as memorizing words and characters, but we will be confronting each area of language acquisition--listening, speaking, reading, and writing -- at a considerably higher level of sophistication. For example, we will be doing listening and reading comprehension exercises on passages of gradually increasing length and complexity, and the topics for our speaking exercises will include not only those from daily life but also those on some social issues. We will also be doing more writing, composing sentences and short passages at first and eventually short essays. As a rule, second-year texts dispense with romanization altogether, and it is hoped that by the end of this semester students will be able to read extended passages written only in characters.

COURSE MATERIALS

1. Yuehua Liu et al. Integrated Chinese Level 2: Textbook. Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 1997.

2. _____. Integrated Chinese Level 2: Workbook (Both texts are available at the University Bookstore).

3. Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary. New York and Hong Kong: Oxford UP (Available at the University Bookstore).

4. Audio tapes for the texts are available for listening in the Language Lab and online.

5. Supplementary materials will be handed out in class.

COURSE ORGANIZATION AND GRADING

Basically, the course will be organized in the same way as last semester, spending approximately six sessions on each lesson (We may have one extra session on some of lessons). As we did last semester, detailed arrangements of our class will be given in day-to-day schedules distributed before each new lesson.

In addition to two quizzes (usually in the form of dictation), there will be a comprehensive written test for each lesson. There will be a final exam consisting of both oral and written elements. Here is the breakdown of the course grading, which will be eventually converted into a letter grade for your final grade on this course:

ATTENDANCE AND REQUIREMENTS

        Students must attend each class. No absence will be honored unless it has been permitted in advance by the instructor or recommended by a physician in the case of sickness.  A student who incurs an absence must make up all work missed during the absence except for quizzes, and must submit assignments on the due dates. Unauthorized absence and frequent late arrival will adversely affect your final grade in the following way: each unauthorized absence (or five 5-minute late arrivals) will cause the deduction of one point from your percent score. For example, John Smith has a percent score of 92. He has accumulated 2.8 deductible points because of two absences and four late arrivals. After the deduction, his final percent score is 89.2. While a percent score of 92 may be converted into an A-, a score of 89 is a B+ instead.

It is useful to note that this course adheres to the FSU STUDENT HONOR CODE as described in the student handbook.