CHI4089 - Chinese 8

Leader: Yan Chen

Offered

Clayton Second semester 2007 (Day)

Synopsis

This unit will introduce students to a range of primarily literary texts in contemporary Chinese. Students' ability to understand contemporary China and their skills of speaking, listening and writing will be further developed through various classroom activities of reading, translations and discussions and through essay-writing.

Objectives

The subject aims to provide students with:

1. General knowledge that will enhance their understanding of contemporary Chinese culture and society.
2. The ability to comprehend and express complex ideas in both spoken and written forms, consolidating skills already acquired at the Advanced Intermediate level.
3. Strategies of cross-cultural conceptualisation, incorporating translation skills, crucial to critical thinking on a range of cultural and social topics concerning contemporary China. Translation and reading exercises developed for this part of the course are based primarily on texts in standard Chinese from the People's Republic of China.

Assessment

Class participation: 20%
Two oral presentations (20 minutes each): 20%
Two written assignments (800 Chinese characters each): 40%
Written examination (2 hours): 20%

Contact hours

4 hours (2 x 2 hour seminars) per week

Prerequisites

A credit in Chinese 7 or permission. Admission to Honours.

Prohibitions

CHI1080, CHI1480, CHI2080, CHI2480, CHI3080, CHI3480, CHI4080, CHI4480, CHI5080.