This course aims to help students improve their language acquisition skills, enhance their linguistic skills, and upgrade their language proficiency to the level higher than the Intermediate Chinese I. After finishing this course, students are expected to significantly improve their ability to speak and write long Chinese paragraphs and compositions, to engage in longer conversations with native speakers, to articulate words with precision and accuracy, and to be capable of writing and recognizing simplified characters. The course is conducted mostly in Chinese. All in-class and out-of-class communications with the instructor, whether oral, written, or electronic, require the use of Chinese. It is hoped that students come away from this class meeting the ACTFL’s language proficiency standard at Intermediate Mid-level.

This is a compulsory course for the Chinese minor at SUU. With the successful completion of this course (with a C or higher), students are eligible to continue with the upper-division courses of Chinese minor.

Textbooks and CD:

Yuehua Liu and Tao-Chung Yao. 2017. Integrated Chinese: Textbook Simplified Characters, Level 1, Part 2, 4th Edition. Boston: Cheng & Tsui Company.

---. 2017. Integrated Chinese: Workbook Simplified Characters, Level 1, Part 2, 4th Edition. Boston: Cheng & Tsui Company.

---. 2017. Integrated Chinese: Character Workbook, Simplified and Traditional Characters, Level 1, Part 2, 4th Edition. Boston: Cheng & Tsui Company.

All books are available for purchase at the SUU bookstore.

As a continuation of the previous sequence of Chinese courses, this course will focus more on Chinese characters, vocabulary and text analysis:

Orthography (Chinese characters 汉字):

characters and characters! As the vocabulary from this level of Chinese course increases exponentially, you have to form a habit of memorizing the Chinese characters and be able to associate the same characters that appear in different words. Ability to recognize correctly _5__00_ Chinese characters, and to write accurately _300_ characters with correct stroke order from memory.

Listening:

Ability to understand classroom Chinese and everyday Chinese on the topics covered in and relevant to the textbook as well as some simple narratives.

Grammar:

Start to increase awareness of discourse structure in the text. Learn how to use connecting devices to form a paragraph in speaking and writing.

Reading:

Be able to recognize high frequency vocabulary. With larger vocabulary size, be able to make inferences in reading comprehension.

Conversation:

Ability to converse in Mandarin on subject matters covered in the textbook.

Writing:

Use basic grammar and sentence patterns to write complete narratives or composition with attention paid to coherence and collocation. In this course, we will spend more time in writing and proofreading to enhance students’ language proficiency.

Cultural proficiency:

Demonstrate basic understanding of Chinese culture, including college life, rent, ordering food at a Chinese restaurant, shopping and other topics related to sinophone culture.

Conversation:

Ability to converse in Mandarin on subject matters covered in Integrated Chinese Level1Part2.

In addition, students will meet the following SUU learning outcomes:

• Communication: Students develop and express ideas and will be able to do so in a variety of ways, namely in writing, by speaking, visually, kinesthetically, through design or aurally.
• Intercultural Knowledge and Competence: Students demonstrate that they possess a set of cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills and characteristics that support effective and appropriate interaction in a variety of cultural contexts.

Doing well in a language class requires consistent, but not exhausting, effort. If you budget your time outside of class to make sure you practice regularly, you will succeed. Because of the nature of the subject, cramming at the last minute will almost surely lead to unsatisfactory performance in Chinese—in other words, don’t fall behind!

Attendance (15%)

Students are expected to attend all class sessions and actively participate in all hours of language instruction. For that reason, attendance will be taken on a daily basis. Arriving more than 10 minutes late or leaving early will be defined as being absent. You will receive extra credits if you attend every class during the semester.

Participation (16%)

Students are expected to participate actively in all in-class activities in each single session. It is unacceptable to sit in class and do homework; such behavior may result in substantial penalties to your participation grade. No cell phone, laptop, pad, or any other technical devices are allowed to be used in the class unless required by the instructors.

Character copy (6%)

Copy Chinese characters in the character workbook. Students need to hand in the assigned character workbook homework on due date in class. Students should not write anything except characters in character workbook. Students can use character workbook for reference in writing assignments, chapter tests, and exam(s). Students who write everything correctly in the previous vocabulary quiz will automatically get full credit for the succeeding cc without having to write it.

Workbook Homework (6%)

Students need to hand in the assigned workbook homework on due date in class.

Chinese Language Clinics (5%)

Please schedule your LC with the tutors and attend according to your appointments.

Students need to attend at least 5 language clinics to get full credits for LC. It’s optional for students to attend 5 more language clinics to get extra credits (totally 5). Please make sure that you schedule with the tutors earlier rather than later. You’re highly encouraged to practice Chinese with the tutors beyond LC schedules.

Vocabulary Quizzes (18%)

In CHIN2020, the instructor does not teach vocabulary anymore. Students need to teach themselves vocabulary and get ready for the quiz before attending the class. There will be a vocabulary quiz in the first session for each text. It tests students’ character recognition and writing.

Chapter Tests (24%)

There will be three chapter tests. The tests include listening and reading comprehension, grammar, and Chinese characters. You can use the character workbook for reference while writing the tests. But you are highly encouraged to remember how to write the characters. If you don’t use the character workbook, you’ll get 10 scores on top of your grade.

Projects (10%)

There will be 2 projects. Rubrics for each project will be given in advance. Please pay attention to further announcements on the details.

Culture Sessions

Two Chinese films will be shown at 2025 International Film Festival (Feb 12 and Feb 26, at 5:30 p.m.). Students are required to watch both films. Students will get extra credits by attending screenings (please write the film’s name and your name on a piece of paper and give it to Zhang Laoshi at the end of the screening of that day.)

The SUU International Film Festival (ICSUU)

Two Chinese films will be shown at 2025 International Film Festival (The theatre at the student center): Drunken Master 1994 (Feb 13, Cantonese) and Red Sorghum (Feb 25, Mandarin). Students are required to watch at least one film, and ideally both. Students are also encouraged to watch other foreign movies from Feb 10 to Feb 25. Students will get 1 extra credit by attending one or two screenings (please write the film’s name and your name on a piece of paper and give it to Zhang Laoshi at the end of the screening of that day.)

Final Exam

A humanistic class does not have an exam early in the morning!

Grades will be assigned on the following point scale.

Students will be graded on a 100-point scale. All the items add up to 100 points. Any extra unexcused absences (after 4 unexcused absences) will lead to additional subtractions on the basis of your weighted total grade. The instructor will assign final letter grades according to the scale below:

A: 93-100; A-: 90-92.99; B+: 87-89; B: 83-86; B-: 80-82; C+: 77-79; C: 73-76; C-: 70-72; D+: 67-69; D 63-65 D- 60-62 F<60

Assignment Weights

Please keep all your graded written homework. Please keep all your graded homework, in case that you want to check your grades. In doing so, it can also help you to review what you have learned.

(This syllabus is subject to change. Updates will be announced and posted to Canvas if changes occur)

L = Lesson; D = Dialogue; N = Narrative; WB = Workbook; CC = Character Copy;

NO Final Exam. Happy Summer Break!

Grading Policy for Homework

Homework including workbook and character copy are assigned on a daily basis and should be turned in immediately upon arrival at the classroom of the due date. Homework turned in 24 hours late will receive 75% of the total grade. Homework turned in 48 hours late will receive 50% of the total grade, and homework turned in later than that will be corrected but receive no grade. Late homework as a result of medical reasons, only when accompanied by a physician’s note, will be accepted as homework finished on time. Computer problems will not be accepted as a reason for late homework. The late homework with excused absence has to be made up within one week from the absent date, or it will be corrected but not graded.

Make-Up Tests and Quizzes

All students are expected to take tests and quizzes as they are scheduled. No make-up test or quiz is allowed unless there is a physician’s note to certify that the student cannot take the test or quiz at the scheduled time. The late test or quiz with excused absence has to be made up within one week from the absent date, or it will be corrected but not graded.

Students are expected to attend all class sessions and actively participate in all hours of language instruction. For that reason, attendance will be taken on a daily basis. Arriving more than 10 minutes late or leaving early will be defined as being absent. You will receive extra credits if you attend every class during the semester.

Any extra unexcused absences (after 4 unexcused absences) will lead to additional subtractions on the basis of your weighted total grade.