30912 - Chinese Language (LM)

Learning outcomes

The students will be expected to have a good knowledge of discourse strategies and will be able to apply these skills to text-analysis and translation. Through practical exercises, their communicative competencies in all the abilities, active and passive, will reach a C2 level of the European Common Framework which will provide them with sufficient skills to effectively interpret socio-linguistic and cultural codes of people involved in a communicative rapport.

Course contents

The class integrates the improvement of language skills and the study of complex grammar structures, on the one hand, with a close analysis of the main communicative registers of Chinese, within different discursive contexts, on the other. This is done through the analysis and translation of passages from a wide range of textual typologies: newspaper articles and blogs, academic essays, literary works.

In addition to language classes, we will have specific lectures by external experts on the sociological and ideological analysis of the language and on Chinese political and media communication.

Please do refer to the Exercises page for more information on activities with the foreign language instructor.

Readings/Bibliography

The Chinese texts to be translated and analyzed will be available on the course's page on the "Virtuale" platform.

Recommended readings (not part of the exam):

[Please refer to the main page in Italian]

Teaching methods

Frontal lessons and tutorials, with active student participation.

Assessment methods

Written and oral exam. It consists of two parts, each graded 30/30. The final mark is the mathematical average of the marks obtained in the two parts:

1. Written exam (Prof. Picerni): translation from Chinese into Italian of a short text not discussed during the course. Both paper and digital dictionaries can be used in the exam.

The examination is marked by subtracting 1 point for each incorrect/untranslated sentence; 0.5 for each incorrect/untranslated grammatical structure (complements, particles, etc.); 0.25 for each incorrectly translated word.

1a. Term paper: students are required to submit a paper of 8-10 pages (bibliography not included) on one of the topics covered during the course, including those covered by the guest lectures. The topic of the paper, to be sent at least 7 working days before the exam, must be agreed in advance with the lecturer. The paper is not assessed but contributes to the possible awarding of honours to the final grade, as well as to the rounding up of uncertain grades; it may also be rejected if it is judged insufficient for the minimum standards of a research work

2. Oral examination (Prof. Hu): questions in Chinese relating to the content of the passages presented during the course. Further information, together with the examination texts, is available on the Virtual Practice Course page.

It is possible to take each part in different exam sessions, bearing in mind that the grade remains valid for one year.

Teaching tools

PowerPoint presentation, multimedia resources and materials.

Office hours

See the website of Federico Picerni