LINGUA CINESE ED ESERCITAZIONE DI LINGUA CINESE (III ANNO)
- Overview
- Assessment methods
- Learning objectives
- Contents
- Full programme
- Bibliography
- Teaching methods
- Contacts/Info
Students attending the third year are normally required to have attended the second-year course or another course of equal level.
The third year final exam is both written and oral, and entails:
A written section, evaluated in 1/100s, which has to be passed with a minimum of 60/100 in order to accede to the oral section. Students who do not pass the written section – which will be reviewed on the spot – must take the exam again during the following exam session. This written section is made up of two parts:
a dictation (3 sentences), which have to be transcribed into simplified characters and annotated with pinyin and tone marks, further adding the correct radical for each character, and finally translated into Italian). Students can gain more points if they also add the original forms and radicals when characters have been simplified;
a set of grammar exercises (fill-in-the-blanks; word order; correct phrase etc.) and a set of translation exercises (Italian to Chinese), generally five sentences;
a few sentences handwritten in cursive script that have to be transcribed in regular script;
a Business Chinese e-mail that the students will have to translate and then answer in Chinese;
a short text written in original form characters that the students will have to summarize in simplified Chinese;
a newspaper article (about 500 characters) that will have to be translated into Italian (the use of Pleco or any other dictionary is allowed);
An oral section, based on the reading and translation into Italian of texts that have been learned during the year, and on free conversation in Chinese.
The final grade in 1/30s will be arrived at thanks to a conversion algorithm that translates the evaluation of the written section from 1/100s to 1/30s, while the oral section can add 3/30s at most. Students cannot accede to the oral section if they fail the written section, but they cannot pass the exam if they fail to pass the oral section, their positive grade in the written section notwithstanding.
The final grade will be integrated with supplementary points gained by taking part in dictation exercises and a number of extracurricular activities, but that augmented grade must be defended during the oral section of the final exam, which is key for the formulation of the final grade.
At the end of the three-year course in Chinese language, the students who have completed all three years should be able to successfully pass the HSK V exam. They will have learned how to correctly write Chinese characters, memorizing about 3.000 of the most frequent ones both in their original as well as in their simplified form. They will be able to use – both orally and in writing – about 4.000 high-frequency words. They will be able to understand a common use text handwritten in cursive script. In most situations, students will be able to understand a native Chinese speaker and to take part in a conversation. The teaching objectives for the third year focus on learning the main lexical compound structures that help build complex sentences, as well as a good number of commonly used idioms and proverbs. Adding a further 1.200 characters and 2.000 words to the basic vocabulary learned in the previous two years, most students should feel ready to further compound their knowledge of Chinese by engaging in a third study tour, this time for one or two semesters: either during their third year, by participating in our student exchanges with Northwest University, or by enrolling in a Chinese university after obtaining a Confucius Institute scholarship (or other scholarships offered by affiliated universities), in the year following their third. In this last case, they may still be able to come back to Italy before March of the following year to discuss their final dissertation, thus graduating in course. Students who make this choice are generally able to pass the HSK VI exam at the end of their stay in China (level B2/C1 of the Common European Frame of Reference), gaining access to Master’s courses taught in Chinese at universities on the PRC’s mainland, or in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
By reading and translating texts of an increasing degree of complexity, students will learn to acquire and use blocs of specialized lexicon and sentence patterns that will enable them to construct complex discourses in speech and in writing on a wide variety of topics regarding everyday China. Beside their Advanced Chinese textbook, the students will also study Business Chinese and will complete their learning of the Chinese cursive script. During their lessons with the Chinese mother tongue teacher, the focus will be on freewheeling conversation, as well as on written compositions and summaries. The students will acquire a further 1.200 characters and about 2.000 new words to add to their basic vocabulary. As for the study of Chinese grammar, the textbooks will focus on widening the students’ vocabulary, studying compound structures that help connect complex sentences, idioms and proverbs, specialized language, etc. Chinese-Italian/Italian-Chinese translating skills will be strengthened, while the students will learn how to deal with business-oriented written composition (e-mails) and conversation as they are introduced to Business Chinese.
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Mandatory texts:
Masini F. et al., Il cinese per gli italiani – Yidaliren xue Hanyu. Vol. 3 Corso Avanzato, con CD-ROM, Milano, Hoepli, ultima edizione (ISBN-10: 882033688X; ISBN-13: 978-8820336882).
Leonesi B., Cinese & affari. Manuale pratico di cinese commerciale, con CD-ROM, Milano, ultima edizione (ISBN-10: 8820347989; ISBN-13: 978-8820347987).
Mainly conventional lectures, with occasional workshops on specific topics.
Day, place and hours of teacher-student counselling will be agreed upon with the students.