75700 - Chinese Language and Literature 2A (LM)

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course the student will acquire a first set of intermediate level skills in the Chinese language; he/she will be able to deepen the related literature and related issues, referring to the most updated bibliography.

Course contents

All the lessons will take place online (Teams)

Please refer to the "avvisi" page on the teacher website for the exact timetable.

The 6 credit course is divided into two parts: language and culture; for the latter, the student will present a paper at least one week before the written exam.

The paper can be in italian or English and it has to contain notes, bibliography and a glossary with the Chinese keyword, proper names and names of places.

 
Language program:

Li Xuemei, Nihao Zhongguo: pp. 73-113.

Other materials will be provided by the teacher before the lessons and uploaded to the "teaching materials" section of the course, which students enrolled in the course can access.

In detail, the program of the language part provides:

1- the interrogative form of adjective phrase, affirmative and negative.

2- Time （时间/时候): temporal expressions, the day, hours and calendar

3- Moderating and reinforcing adjectives and "psychological verbs" (心理动词)
4- 能/可以/会
5- Use of 了 modale/aspect

6- Shopping: Different national currencies, the renminbi. Big numbers.

7-Colors

8- Verbal chain

9- Common nouns of locality 方位词

10- Means of transportation

11- Prepositions: 给， 跟，到， 从， 离， 对

12- Focus on contrastive use of:

        或者／还是；  的／得／地.
13- Subordinate:
     Adverse (但是, 不过), hypothetical (如果／假如...的话), 只要... 就...

14- The post-verbal particle suffix 着

- Paraverbal communication and main discursive signals

- Identification of radicals and Chinese Characters classification according Shuowen jiezi as a strategy of CLL.

Culture (Outline of Chinese Thought and Literature)

The student can choose the topic of the paper among one of the following:


1. The renewal of thought in the Song era;

2. Popular narratives, myths and legends

3. Women in pre-imperial Chinese society and literature

4. The novel in the pre-modern era

5. Chinese historiographical traditions

6. Daoism as a stratification of popular beliefs

7. Schooling in pre-imperial China and the modernization of education

8. The question of language between baihua and wenyan

Readings/Bibliography

Language:

Mandatory
Li Xuemei (2005) Buongiorno Cina! 你好中国！ （Vol 1/I） Cafoscarina.

Grammar
Abbiati (1998) Grammatica di cinese moderno, Cafoscarina.

Recommended:

Madaro (2016) La parola - lingua cinese moderna standard, Cafoscarina.

Romagnoli, Wang (2016) Grammatica d'uso della lingua cinese, Hoepli.

Dictionaries
Xu, Ardizzoni (2014) Dizionario cinese-italiano per lo studio della lingua cinese, BUP.
Zhao Xiuying (2013) Il Dizionario di cinese, Zanichelli.

Online dictionaries:
www.mdbg.net
www.infocina.net

References for the paper:

Text 1: Cheng, A. (1997) History of Chinese Thought, Einaudi. (Vol. 1, 2).

Text 2: Lanciotti, Lionello (2007). Chinese Literature, ISIAO. (or another book, in English)

Text 3: Mair, Victor (ed.), The Columbia History of Chinese Literature

Students are invited to do an autonomous bibliographic search and discuss it with the teacher in preparation for the exam, during office hours or via email.

These books are found in the library of the Dept. of History and Civilization, Via Zamboni, 33

Students who have not attended will bring the same texts and the same program.

Teaching methods

1. Online lessons (Teams)
2. Small groups work in subgroups for the preparation of liguistic tasks to share with the class.

3.  ppt, videos, listening to songs for listening competence;

4. Use of sites for the writing exercise and for the memorization of characters;

 30 hours of lessons, will need 50 hours of individual study.

Assessment methods

This course (6CFU) is a component of the Integrated Course "CINESE 2B (C.I.) (LM)". If the student has the Integrated Course (12CFU) in the study plan, the final grade will be the arithmetic mean of the grades obtained in the two components [CINESE 2A e CINESE 2B (LM)].

At the end of the course students must take a written exam  (2 hours in class, or 90 minutes online) without dictionary.
In one year there will be six written and six sessions (March, May, June, September, November, January).

The written exam will focus  on the linguistic-communicative part and on grammar (see programme).(30% online; 50% in class)

Students who pass the written exam will be admitted to the oral test.
Students who have not passed the exam or who are not satisfied with the grade can repeat the exam at one of the next sessions.

The oral exam is divided into two parts (70%):

1. Linguistic assessment of communicative skills achieved (language dialogue), reading and grammar skills. (50%online; 30% in class

2.Discussion on the submitted paper, from a methodological and content point of view. (20% of the evaluation)

At the oral session, students will show to the teacher a portfolio with their study activities: a folder containing the learning materials , with the exercises of hand-copying of the lessons, glossaries, exercises (grammar, reading, translation).

NON-ATTENDING STUDENTS

Students who attend at least 75% of the lessons are considered to be attending.

Written test: same as other students. Please note that they can access the complete materials in pdf from the course website. - Oral test: same as those attended for the linguistic part. For the historical-literary part, they also will  present a 5 page paper on one of the topics in the program.
The text must be accompanied by notes, bibliography and a glossary of Italian-Chinese keywords (proper names, toponyms, concepts) and can be agreed with the teacher personally or by e-mail.

STUDENTS with Chinese as their first language: besides the written test as other students, students of Chinese mother tongue will be asked to translate a short piece of modern literature (Chinese-Italian)
For the oral part, they are requested to follow general rules for the paper - which has to be in italian or English. 

CRITERIA FOR ORAL ASSESSMENT:

Linguistic competence
The assessment of the oral test will take into account the student's ability to engage in dialogue in Chinese on a known subject; to read a text in semplified characters, without pinyin transcription; to answer questions about the text; to give instructions on how to access library services in Chinese; to identify and explain the grammatical points addressed in class in the first and second year.

Culture

For the culture part, he/she will have to demonstrate her/his competence in the sources and bibliographic materials s/he used to draw useful information that has allowed him/her to produce the work on the chosen theme, framing it in a general perspective of the time and the categories involved, knowing how to make connections within a wider framework of knowledge acquired during the course of study.

They will then be evaluated on:
- The fluency and accuracy of the statement (four tones, the initials, the endings of syllables and the intonation of the sentence)
- Listening ability
- Grammatical competence, on an operational and theoretical level
- The ability to analyse linguistic elements in a text.

The achievement by the student of an organic vision of the topics addressed in the lesson together with their critical use, good expressive mastery and specific language will be evaluated with marks of excellence. A mnemonic knowledge of the subject, together with the ability to synthesis and analyse it in a correct but not always appropriate language, will lead to discreet evaluations. Gaps in training and/or inappropriate language will lead to grades that do not exceed sufficiency. Training gaps, inappropriate language, lack of orientation within the bibliographic materials offered during the course will be evaluated negatively.

Teaching tools

Online teaching platform (Teams) - Audio- video - power point - internet

Office hours

See the website of Sabrina Ardizzoni