Dr Lijing Shi 601H, Pethick-Lawrence House

Students should have successfully completed LSE Level 3 course or have learned equivalent content, see the description of “Communicative content” and “Structural Content” of Level 3 course (LN715 or LN716).

Students should: Demonstrate full commitment to regular attendance, completion of homework, and all pieces of continuous assessment; Dedicate at least two hours per week for coursework, in addition to classes. Admission into the course after completion of the online test and upon tutor’s approval during the Needs Analysis Interview. For anyone who wants to improve Mandarin Chinese. The student should have sufficient skills in all four skills as listed above.

Course Aim:

• To develop the ability to use Chinese effectively for purposes of practical communication and reading comprehension in a variety of contexts.
• To establish the language and study skills required to promote and facilitate further study of Chinese.
• To deepen one´s knowledge of Chinese culture and society.
• To be able to deliver presentation or write essay on a given topic.
• To improve your transferable skills.
• To bring the students to the equivalent of level B2, CEFR.

The course is focused on the following communicative functions:

• Expressing one’s opinion.
• Giving an example.
• Presenting and appreciating a gift.
• Expressing concerns.
• Comparing.
• Describing things.
• Emphasizing an affirmation.
• Expressing modesty.
• Indicating a change.
• Making a summary.
• Giving encouragement.
• Making inquiries.
• Making estimations.
• Giving implicit response.
• Explaining.
• Indicating possibility.
• Initiating a topic of conversation.
• Making additional remarks.
• Stressing a point.
• Telling a story.
• Reproaching and questioning.
• Refusing.
• Talking about the climate.
• Making suggestions.
• Expressing surprise.
• Sequence of actions.
• Congratulating someone.
• Clarifying a point of view.
• Comforting and consoling.
• Making a decision.

This course will focus on the following grammatical areas:

• Separable verbs.
• Negative comparison.
• The rhetorical questions.
• Sentences containing a series of verbs.
• Resultative complements.
• The reduplication of adjectives.
• Sentences indicating the existence or emergence.
• The complement of state.
• Approximate numbers.
• Potential complement.
• The reduplication of nouns, measure words, and numeral measure word phrases.
• Interrogative pronouns of indefinite denotation.
• The subjectless sentence.
• Interrogative pronouns of general denotation.
• Fractions, percentages and multiples.
• Flexible uses of interrogative pronouns.

The course will also introduce 680 words and 280 Chinese characters.

16 hours of classes in the MT. 22 hours of classes in the LT. 2 hours of classes in the ST.

This is a 40 hour-course. Please refer to the LSE timetable for course teaching arrangements.

Key textbook:

New practical Chinese Reader, textbook, vol. 3, by Liu Xun, Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2007 (the textbook comes with DVD or audio materials)

Recommended Readings:

Concise English-Chinese, Chinese-English Dictionary., Commercial Press/Oxford University Press 1986

Intermediate Chinese - A Grammar and Workbook by Yip Po-Ching and Don Rimmington. Routledge. 1998

Continuous assessment (70%) in the MT and LT.
Oral examination (30%) in the LT.

Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.