Minds Abroad Intermediate Learners' Chinese Syllabus
Length of the course: 8 units
Description:
This course is for students with a foundation in Mandarin (especially pinyin). It is designed to strengthen and develop the communicative skills pertaining to listening, speaking, reading, and writing, while reviewing grammar and introducing more idiomatic expressions. Instructions from teachers will specifically focus on writing achieved through daily journals and assigned written topics. We believe that after being in our Mandarin program, you will make significant progress in the second phase of your Chinese language study.
Unit One
In this unit, students will go through pinyin and spelling rules. Our teacher will teach and review words by category. The main aim of this unit is to review what students have learned before and reinforce that knowledge so that students in this class can be on one level. This unit lays a foundation for the following week’s study.
Unit Two
Students will learn five well-selected survival topics and related new words. Role playing and many other activities are arranged to practice useful dialogues. Some idiomatic expressions and Chinese culture will be introduced.
Unit Three
Students will continue to learn another five well-selected survival topics and related new words. Role playing and many other activities are arranged to practice useful dialogues. Additionally, students will review what has been learned. More idiomatic expressions and Chinese culture will be introduced.
Unit Four
Students will review simplified Chinese characters and study more commonly used characters in this unit. The focus will be on character recognition and vocabulary expansion. Chinese culture and idiomatic expressions will continue to be covered in this unit.
Unit Five
This unit is designed to strengthen the communicative skills pertaining to listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students will have more activities with the teacher in this unit.
Unit Six
The same as Unit Five. Also, students will be exposed to more situations to help develop their communication skills. Upon completion of this unit, students should be able to communicate with the local Chinese people on a day to day basis.
Unit Seven
This unit focuses on expanding the students’ newly acquired vocabulary (both oral and written words). Our experienced teacher will make summaries of commonly used word categories. This will help students remember many words effectively.
Unit Eight
In this unit, students will review what has been learned in the previous units. You will be involved in more activities with your teacher, and the teacher can tailor the lessons according to your requirements.
The curriculum below is a sample developed keeping in mind the level for a generic intermediate level student. It is by no means a final curriculum, which is prepared upon discussion with the student on the first day of class.
