B2524 - Written and Oral Communication in Chinese (Second Language) I

Learning outcomes

At the end of the course, the student will be familiar with the linguistic and pragmatic aspects of the Chinese language; they will be able to understand, analyze, and produce oral speeches and written texts on a wide range of topics in Chinese, used in various areas of modern society. They will be capable of handling complex communicative situations, expressing themselves spontaneously, and demonstrating mastery of pragmatic communication strategies in Chinese. The competencies achieved by the end of the second year are approximately at the B2+ level of the CEFR.

Course contents

This course aims at deepen the grammatical topics of Chinese basic grammar and the knowledge of Chinese culture. Specifically, the course will focus on the following grammatical topics:

• The adverbs jiu and cai
  
• The adverbs you and zai
  
• The shi...de construction
  
• The aspect particle guo
  
• suiran...danshi
• budan...erqie
  
• yi...jiu
• The resultative complement
• yue...yue
• The degree complement and comparative sentence
• The simple direction complement
  
  

Readings/Bibliography

Masini F., Romagnoli C., Zhang T., Chang Y., (2021), Comunicare in cinese, Vol.1, Milano: Hoepli;

Masini F., Romagnoli C., Zhang T. Chang Y., (2022), Comunicare in cinese, Vol.2, Milano: Hoepli;

Paternicò, L.M., Varriano, V., Tian H., (2021), Grammatica della lingua cinese, Torino: UTET.

Suggested readings:

Giorgio Casacchia, Bai Yukun, (2013), Dizionario cinese - italiano, Libreria editrice Cafoscarina;

Zhao Xiuying, (2013), Il Dizionario di cinese. Dizionario cinese - italiano italiano - cinese, Bologna: Zanichelli;

Abbiati M., (1998), Grammatica di cinese moderno, Venezia: Libreria editrice Cafoscarina;

Romagnoli C., (2012), Grammatica cinese, Milano: Hoepli.

Teaching methods

Interactive frontal lectures with ppt files support.

As concerns the teaching methods of this course unit, all students must attend the online Modules 1, 2 on Health and Safety[https://www.unibo.it/en/services-and-opportunities/health-and-assistance/health-and-safety/online-course-on-health-and-safety-in-study-and-internship-areas].

Assessment methods

Written test (grammatical exercises, and translation of short sentences from Chinese into Italian and viceversa). The written test will last 2 hours and will consist of 10 exercises, to be completed without a dictionary: a wrong answer is equal to 0, an unassigned answer is equal to 0, a correct answer is valued from 2 to 4. The test will be considered passed from 60.

It is strictly forbidden to use AI during the exam. Any violation of this rule will be considered a serious breach of academic ethics. 
During the exam, the use of printed dictionaries, electronic devices, online dictionaries, machine translation systems, AI-based tools, or other online resources will not be permitted.

The oral exam, which lasts about 15 minutes, will consist of questions on the grammatical and cultural topics covered in the course. Specifically, the student will be required to:

- read, translate and analyse an excerpt from one of the texts studied and found in Masini et al. Vol. 1 and Vol.2;

-answer a question in Chinese on topics discussed during the course.

The final mark will be calculated as the average of the marks a student got for the two parts of the exam.

Grading scale

30-30L: excellent performance that demonstrates excellent acquisition of the lexical, grammatical and cultural content proposed in the course; excellent command of the Russian language and culture.

27-29: a good performance, with minor errors compensated by more than sufficient demonstration of knowledge and language skills.

24– 26: valid performance, but with some obvious errors that denote a partial acquisition of the required language knowledge and skills.

21-23: sufficient result but with conspicuous limits in the required knowledge and skills.

18– 20: the performance corresponds to the mininum level of the required knowledge and skills.

<18 insufficient: basic knowledge has not been achieved, the exam must be repeated.

 

Students with specific learning difficulties (SpLD) or with disabilities that can affect their ability to attend courses are invited to contact the University service for students with disabilities and SLD at the earliest opportunity -- ideally before the start of the course: https://site.unibo.it/studenti-con-disabilita-e-dsa/en/for-students. The University service will suggest possible adjustments to the course work and/or exam, which must then be submitted to the course leader so they can assess their feasibility, in line with the learning objectives of the course. Please note that adjustments to the exam must be requested at least two weeks in advance.

Teaching tools

PPT slides, handouts, and supplementary exercises will be distributed in class as needed and will be made available on the e-learning platform Virtuale.

Office hours

See the website of Serena Zuccheri