Pod 11

Interactive Learning Design

Xuejing Yu 

Roy Mao 

Jin Xue 

Wei Wang 

Description

 

Chinese Mandarin is defined as the Northern dialect family who lives in the Yangtze River. Similarly, the term was borrowed from the Portuguese stationed in the 17th century. The people’s Republic of China has adopted Mandarin as their official language in 1955, and there is about 917 million people speak Mandarin nowadays. Learning some basic Chinese phrases and sentences greatly benefits people who want to learn Chinese culture and travel to China or countries using Chinese. For example, Singapore, for a long applied Chinese as one of their four official languages. Mandarin Chinese has some common phrases that are recognized throughout the world, such as Pinyin: bú kè qì and nǐ hǎo. It is crucial to understand that the Mandarin language has a unique structure and tone when you begin to study Chinese. In the first-step of Chinese learning, Chinese mandarin is characterized by some essential features that establish its importance among Chinese speakers.

 

Concept Analysis: Mandarin Chinese

1. Mandarin Chinese Language
2. The term ‘Mandarin’ was borrowed into English from the Portuguese stationed in Macao during the 17^th century. Generally, Mandarin refers to the Northern dialect family whose speakers reside in the northern area of the Yangtze River. Particularly, Mandarin refers to the dialect being spoken in Beijing and nearby areas (Dingxu, 2016).
3. It is the official language being spoken in the People’s Republic of China (China) and the Republic of China (Taiwan). Moreover, the Republic of Singapore recognizes this language as one of their four official languages. United Nations also recognizes Mandarin Chinese as one of its six official languages (Lewis et al., 2015 cited in Spencer, 2015).
4. The following are examples of basic Mandarin Chinese Phrases:
5. Mandarin Chinese: 不客气

Pinyin: bú kè qì.

English: You’re welcome.

1. Mandarin Chinese: 早晨好｡

Pinyin: zǎo chén hǎo.

English: Good morning.

3. The following are misconceptions on Mandarin Chinese:
4. Misconception: Each Chinese character represents a word.

What it really is: A single Chinese character is not equivalent to a word. It is true that some words consists only one character but most words actually calls for a combination of two or more characters (Baak, 2018).

1. Misconception: Mandarin does not have a grammar.

What it really is: Mandarin’s grammar structure is entirely different from most Indo-European languages. One has to learn plenty of grammar rules before finally starting to speak Chinese Mandarin (Baak, 2018).

4. Essential Features of Mandarin Chinese
5. Pinyin – The Pinyin system is a phonemic illustration of Putonghua. Putonghua’s phonemic and phonological system is based on Mandarin. Hence, Pinyin can be considered as the most effective way of illustrating the morphemes in Mandarin (Dingxu, 2016).
6. Tone – Mandarin is a tone language; this means that pitch difference is utilized to signify the meaning contrast of syllables. The following are the four major tones in Mandarin: high level tone, mid rising tone, contour tone, high falling tone (Dingxu, 2016).
7. Sentence Structure – The following are prominent features sentence structure of Mandarin:
8. In Mandarin, modifiers come before what is being modified (Li & Thompson, 1989).
9. Mandarin is topic-prominent which means that in Mandarin, the topic comes first and it is followed by the subject (Li & Thompson, 1989).

iii. When it comes to verbs, Mandarin has aspect rather than tense. The aspect of the verb refers to the time relative to when the event took place (Li & Thompson, 1989).

5. Accidental Features of Mandarin Chinese
6. Learning Mandarin Chinese can help one bridge the cultural gap and better understand the Chinese culture (Boston University, 2020).
7. Speaking Mandarin Chinese can help one foster his/her business or career because most of the companies today prefer people who know how to speak Chinese. Companies also prefer those who have enough cultural skills to be in a Chinese business environment (Boston University, 2020).
8. Mandarin Chinese is one of the important business languages in the Global Market (Boston University, 2020).

Learning Outcomes:

1. Analyze the characteristics of Chinese and introduce 67 Pinyin-Chinese phonetics system.
2. To help students gain some initial understanding of the relationship between syllables, and Chinese characters through the use of pictures.
3. Extensive practice of Pinyin and tones.
4. Search the dictionary according to the radicals of partial parts.
5. Should know the meaning of words, read, write, and annotate them.
6. Memorize some frequently used short sentences.

Unit	Unit Topics	Learning Outcomes/ Objects	Assessment	Resources & Learning Activities
0	Introduction of Mandarin What is Chinese Characteristics of  Chinese Component of Chinese	●      Think about why you learn Chinese●      Analyze the characteristics of  Chinese ●      Evaluate the difference between Chinese and other languages	Nothing need be graded in unit 0	●      https://blog.keatschinese.com/7-reasons-why-learning-chinese-is-important/●      https://blog.thelinguist.com/2020/01/07/how-to-learn-chinese/ ●      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2km_z4-1T8 ●      Grading Rubric ●      Liu, Y., Yao, T., Bi, N., Ge, L., &Shi, Y. (2010). Integrated chinese level 1/part 1 textbook: traditional characters.
1	PinYin—Chinese Syllable(Suggested time: 1 week)   Intro to syllable Consonants and Initial Consonant a. Pronunciation of Consonants b. Pronunciation of Initial Consonant 3.   Vowels and Compound Vowel a. Pronunciation of Vowels b. Pronunciation of Compound Vowels c. Structure of Compound Vowels	●      Students are trained to recognize consonants, vowels,  spell syllables, and identify and correct phonemes.●      Vowels:  a o e i u ü ai ei ui ao ou iu an en in un ün ie üe er ang eng ing ong. ●      consonant: b p m f d t n l g k h j q x zh ch shi r z c s y w ●      Familiarity with the consonant table and vowel table. ●      Marking PinYin for words that can’t be read. ●      Read the article according to pinyin	Graded:●      Assignment on the syllable table ●      Quiz on syllable ●      Writing quiz Vowels and Consonants ●      Speaking test on syllable	●      https://www.yoyochinese.com/chinese-learning-tools/Mandarin-Chinese-pronunciation-lesson/pinyin-chart-table●      https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php ●      https://www.mandarinschool.net/2018/08/07/scheme-for-the-chinese-phonetic-alphabet/ ●      Playing pin Yin Syllable games: https://www.digitaldialects.com/Chinese.htm https://www.gameslearnchinese.com/game/
2	Tone(Suggested time: 2-3 days)   Intro Tone in Chinese Four Major Tone a. High-Level Tone b. Mid Rising Tone c. Contour Tone d. High Falling Tone	●      Be able to pronounce the Chinese character accurately by manipulating variation of four types of tone●      Recognize pin yin with different tone giving the audience a different character ●      Be able to distinguish four types of tone from listening	Graded:●      Oral quiz ●      Listening test	●      https://chinese.yabla.com/chinese-pinyin-chart.php●      https://chinesepod.com/tools/pronunciation/section/17 ●      Tone pratice game: http://www.guihuazhu.com/courses/elementary/tonepractice/tonepractice.htm
3	Simplify Chinese Characters(Suggested time: 2-3 weeks)   Origin of Chinese a. Origin and Evolution Characteristics of Chinese Characters The shape of Chinese Characters Structure of Chinese Characters	●      Know the radicals and structures, and can form words.●      Learning prefixes and suffixes. ●      Using a dictionary to find words.	Graded:●      Assignment on character’ structure ●      Practice on how to write Chinese in the right step ●      Quiz on writing basic Chinese characters	●      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0h18Rdhb44●      https://studycli.org/chinese-characters/the-100-most-common-chinese-characters/ ●      https://usefulcharts.com/blogs/charts/100-chinese-characters-to-know ●      Matching games: match Chinese characters with corresponding Pin Yin and tone http://www.guihuazhu.com/exercises/wordmatch/index-w1.htm
4	Vocabulary(Suggested time: 2-3 weeks)   Meaning of  Vocabulary Structure of Vocabulary Classification of Vocabulary a. Synonym b. Antonym Basic Vocabulary General Vocabulary Archaism, Localism  The idiomatic phrase a. Idiom b.  Proverb	●      Can write and read every word.●      Understanding the meaning of words. ●      memorize the vocabulary ●      Greetings in normal and polite ways ●      Expressing time, days and counting numbers from 0-100	Graded:●      Assignment on the definition of vocabulary ●      Speaking test on distinguish vocabulary ●      Quiz on common vocabulary	●      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CePmtYqLWDA&feature=youtu.be●      https://www.mandarinchineseschool.com/index.php/resources/vocabulary/154-expressions-in-chinese-class ●      https://youtu.be/S_zVuHlhs-0 ●      https://www.mandarinchineseschool.com/index.php/resources/vocabulary/152-learn-chinese-online-words-introduce-your-family-in-chinese ●      Card Game online: http://www.guihuazhu.com/exercises/
5	Sentence Structure(Suggested time: 2-3  weeks)   Basic Sentence Structure a. subject-verb b. non-subject c. Subject + Verb + Object	●      Use known vocabulary appropriately to make sentences.●      Making a simple sentence. ●      Apply sentence restructuring, substitution practice, and sentence imitation to improve sentence structure. ●      Word order in sentences (Chinese sentence orders, the difference between English and Chinese)	Graded:●      Quiz on make sentences ●      Speaking test on read a short article ●      A short composition ●      A short self-introduction	●      https://www.fluentu.com/blog/chinese/2013/10/30/chinese-sentence-structure/●      https://www.thoughtco.com/mandarin-chinese-sentence-structure-2279425 ●      https://www.digmandarin.com/all-video-lessons/basic-sentence-structure-chinese ●      True/False Cards: Each card has one sentence on it, and analyze if it has the right structure.

Resources

 

Texts/Materials

• Chinese for Beginners. (n.d.). https://www.coursera.org/learn/learn-chinese
• Liu, Y., Yao, T., Bi, N.,Ge, L., &Shi, Y. (2010). Integrated chinese level 1/part 1 textbook: traditional characters.●
• Symonds, M. &Tian,B. (2007). Chinese Made Easier Book 2 (English and Chinese Edition).
• Greenwood, E. (2015). Easy peasy Chinese workbook: Mandarin Chinese practice for beginners. London: DK Children.

• https://www.mandarinchineseschool.com/index.php/resources/86-easy-peasy-chinesewritten-by-dk-a-very-good-mandarin-chinese-textbook-for-beginners-with-cd-audioes

 

References

• Baak, I. (2018, October 19). 10 biggest misconceptions about the Chinese language. Retrieved from https://blog.hutong-school.com/10-biggest-misconceptions-about-the-chinese-language/
• Boston University. (2020, May 9). Chinese | World languages & literatures. Retrieved from https://www.bu.edu/wll/undergraduate/degree-programs/chinese/
• Dingxu, S. (2016). Chapter 33: Mandarin. In The Routledge encyclopedia of the Chinese language [Adobe Digital Editions version ] (1st ed., pp. 579-604). Retrieved from https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.ubc.ca/10.4324/9781315675541
• Li, C. N., & Thompson, S. A. (1989). Mandarin Chinese: A functional reference grammar. University of California Press.
• Spencer, W. A. (2015). Mandarin Chinese as a second language: A review of literature (Master’s thesis). Retrieved from https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/0f60/6cea35c7d60a6e4bdac43720638a38454c87.pdf

 

Grading Plan:

Grades are assigned as follows:

 

Participation	10%
Weekly Assignments	30%
Quizzes	20%
Test	30%
Short self-introduction	10%