Aims

(1) To provide students with sufficient language competence to cope with the linguistic demands of real life in general, personal, social and business contexts.
(2) To develop an appropriate level of inter-cultural sensitivity in students, enabling successful interpersonal communication in a range of different situations.
(3) To continue to provide students with the necessary skills to become better language learners.

You will build upon the achievements made during your year abroad, increasing your knowledge of vocabulary and grammatical structures at intermediate and post-intermediate levels. By the end, you will be conversing confidently and naturally, orally and in writing, in language appropriate to a range of situations.

We use a task-based, communicative approach, and encourage peer learning through pair and group work. Assessment is by two continuous assessment tests (reading; grammar), portfolio of written assignments, oral, aural and written exam.

Outline Of Syllabus

Roughly equal emphasis will be placed on reading, listening, speaking and writing skills. Grammar will be taught throughout in order to improve all four skills, using an integrated task-based approach.

Topics will include a wide range of social, cultural and political trends and issues relevant to contemporary China. The syllabus and course content may be negotiated as necessary to reflect students’ needs.

Teaching Rationale And Relationship

Intermediate and post-intermediate grammatical structures and vocabulary are introduced and consolidated, using a task-based, communicative approach. Reading skills (skimming for gist; scanning for detail) are introduced and practised via classroom tasks involving pair and group work. Writing skills are introduced in class and practised outside the classroom in creative assignments set by the lecturer.

In order to ensure that 312 hours of independent guided study takes place, each contact hour is followed by homework assignments relating to what has just been introduced/practised. There is a minimum homework submission requirement of 70%, with this percentage being calculated every 6 weeks. Where appropriate, individualised formative feedback is provided (e.g. for writing assignments involving a creative element).

Oral and aural skills (i.e. speaking and listening) are practised throughout the course in task-based activities and via oral presentations. Students are required to spend at least one hour per week in the Language Resource Centre, working on listening work prescribed by the teacher.

THIS MODULE IS TAUGHT AND ASSESSED IN ENGLISH AND CHINESE (SIMPLIFIED CHARACTERS).

Assessment Rationale And Relationship

The portfolio of written coursework provides motivation for independent learning and allows students to assess progress in Semester 2. The formal written examination, oral and aural examinations provide a summary assessment.

Knowledge of intermediate and post-intermediate grammatical structures and vocabulary are assessed in all assessed work. Knowledge of the orthographic system is assessed by portfolio of written coursework and formal written examination, while that of the phonological system is assessed by aural and oral examination.

Listening skills are assessed by aural and oral examination, while speaking skills are assessed in the latter only. Reading skills are assessed by continuous assessment and formal written examination, while writing skills are assessed by portfolio of written coursework and formal written examination.

Resit is by 100% written examination (150 mins).