Revised November 2024
Prerequisite for entry
Successful completion of Mandarin syllabus level 1 at UCL Language Centre, and/or basic knowledge of Mandarin Chinese or Cantonese.
Term duration
10 x 2-hour classes.
Aims and objectives
The course aims to enhance learners' foundational knowledge of Chinese Pinyin, characters, vocabulary, and grammar, enabling them to navigate basic everyday situations. By the end of the course, students will have grasped enough Chinese characters to discuss routine activities, as well as past and future events, using appropriate time expressions and aspect markers. Additionally, they will acquire skills for shopping and evaluating items and prices.
Functions
- Exchanging personal information
- Planning an event and shopping
- Inviting a friend or accepting a friend’s invitation to attend an event
- Asking for opinions and giving feedback
Course content
Main topics/themes to be covered:
- Giving and requesting personal information, such as mobile numbers, home addresses, email addresses, etc.
- Using dates to discuss daily activities and future events
- Shopping-discussing items, prices, and making comments
Linguistic structures/ Phonetics
- Developing confidence with the four tones and the sandhi of "一"
- Becoming familiar with Pinyin pronunciations
- Practicing sentence stress and intonation
Grammar
- Expressing future activities with要 (to want/going to) and 计划 (to plan)
- Particle 了indicating past events or a change of status
- Wh-questions with 几 (what time), 怎么样 (how), 多少 (how many/how much)
- Measure words (件, 条, 双, etc.) in noun phrases
- The position of adverbials of time in a sentence
Learning resources
Books
Discover China: Student's Book One, edited by Chen Xin, Jing Lili, Macmillan. Chapters 5-8
ISBN: 9780230405950
Discover China: Workbook One, Chapters 5-8
ISBN: 9780230406384
Bilingual Dictionaries
- Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary Chinese/English English/Chinese
- Oxford Beginners’ dictionary
- Macmillan-FLTRP Chinese Character Dictionary
Websites
In addition there are supplementary materials for self-study in the Self-Access Centre.