Topics Covered in Class - Beginner

Minds Abroad Beginners’ Survival Chinese Syllabus

Length of the course: 8 units

Program Description: This course is for absolute beginners or for those who know just a few Chinese words. Emphasis is placed on tone differentiation and pronunciation as well as survival language skills so that students will develop both the good habits and confidence that come from successfully completing daily tasks in learning Mandarin. In addition, students will be able to read and write simplified Chinese characters and conduct short dialogues in Chinese.  This curriculum consists of three courses: reading and writing, listening and speaking and a third course that focuses on developing these 4 essential Chinese skills through discussing and learning about Chinese culture.  Classes are held 4 days a week for a total of 15 hours.  See below for a sample week-by-week breakdown of the priorities for each week:

Unit One:
Students will learn pinyin, tones and spelling rules of pinyin in this unit. Basic words and survival topics will also be taught through practice in pronunciation and reading pinyin. The main aim of this unit is to lay a foundation for the following unit’s study. The Chinese culture course will focus on China’s culinary tradition and how it relates to Chinese culture as a whole.

Homework:
Writing and pronunciation practice of vocabulary

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.

Homework:
Writing and pronunciation practice of vocabulary.
Practice dialogues with partner.

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 they have learned before. More idiomatic expressions and Chinese cultural elements will be introduced in this unit. 

Homework: 
Writing and pronunciation practice of vocabulary.
Practice dialogues with partner.

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 cultures and idiomatic expressions will continue to be covered. 

Homework: 
Writing and pronunciation practice of vocabulary.
Practice dialogues with partner.

Unit Five:
This unit is designed to strengthen the communicative skills pertaining to listening, speaking, reading and writing. Students will be involved in more activities with their teacher.  

Homework: 
Writing and pronunciation practice of vocabulary.
Practice dialogues with partner.

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 in daily dialogues.
 
Homework: 
Writing and pronunciation practice of vocabulary.
Practice dialogues with partner.

Unit Seven: 
This unit focuses on expanding vocabulary (both oral and written words). Our experienced teacher will make summaries of commonly used word categories. This will help students to remember many words effectively

Homework: 
Writing and pronunciation practice of vocabulary.
Practice dialogues with partner.

Unit Eight:
In this unit, students will review what has been learned in the previous eight units. There will be more activities with our teacher, and the teacher can tailor the lessons according to the individual student’s requirements.  

Homework: 
Writing and pronunciation practice of vocabulary.
Practice dialogues with partner.