Not available in 2020/21
LN821
Mandarin: Level 5 (Legal Issues)
This information is for the 2020/21 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr Lijing Shi PEL.6.01H
Ms Hongyi Xin, PEL.6.01G
Pre-requisites
Students must have completed Mandarin: Level 5 (Standard) (LN719).
Student should have successfully completed LSE Level 5 or have reached high proficiency level of Chinese. They are expected to be able to communicate on rather complicated non-routine topics and recognise around 3000 characters.
Course content
COURSE AIM:
The linguistic focus will continue to advance the four language skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing, meanwhile helping the students to gain substantial knowledge into vocabulary, syntactic structures and pragmatic usages widely used in legal discourse. It features the general introduction into China’s legal system and its legal professions, with particular emphasis on Chinese civil and commercial laws. Authentic legal documents will be introduced extensively.
The course will enhance the students’ Chinese skills in legal contexts so as to prepare them for successful participation in their future professional communication.
COMMUNICATIVE CONTENT: The course is focused on the following communicative functions:
- Participating in discussion
- Logical argument
- Interaction/Exchange specific information in legal context
- Communication in legal context
- Reading and summarizing complex legal texts
- Writing letters, report and documents with legal elements
- Using language strategies to cope with specialized topics: i.e. law, business, politics and current issues.
STRUCTURAL CONTENT: This course will focus on the following grammatical areas:
- Mandarin pronunciation: Pinyin and tones
- Simplified characters
- Chinese advanced grammar review
- Specific grammatical aspects of topical texts
- Relevant grammatical issues for advanced and specialized communication
- Attributives
- Adverbials
- Appositives
- Regular group or individual translation of legal works
- Reading and summarizing complex legal texts
- Advanced language tasks with reference to case studies
- Advanced language tasks with reference to Contemporary Chinese laws
- Reading comprehension
- Oral presentation
The course will introduce 350 words used in legal discourse.
It will bring students to level C2 of CEFR.
Teaching
8 hours of workshops in the MT. 11 hours of workshops in the LT. 1 hour of workshops in the ST.
Formative coursework
Students will be expected to produce 6 pieces of coursework in the MT and LT.
Indicative reading
William C Jones "Basic Principles of Civil Law In China" published by ME Sharpe. Inc.
Websites:
www.civillaw.com.cn
http://www.88148.com
http://www.yellowbridge.com/chinese/dictionary.php?word=%E5%9A%B7&cache=21961
Dictionary on yellow bridge
Assessment
Continuous assessment (70%) in the MT, LT and ST.
Oral examination (30%) in the LT.
Important information in response to COVID-19
Please note that during 2020/21 academic year some variation to teaching and learning activities may be required to respond to changes in public health advice and/or to account for the situation of students in attendance on campus and those studying online during the early part of the academic year. For assessment, this may involve changes to mode of delivery and/or the format or weighting of assessments. Changes will only be made if required and students will be notified about any changes to teaching or assessment plans at the earliest opportunity.
Key facts
Department: Language Centre
Total students 2019/20: Unavailable
Average class size 2019/20: 3
Personal development skills
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Communication
- Specialist skills
