Prospectus

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Advanced Mandarin 2

Course
2023-2024

Admission requirements

Students admitted to MA Asian Studies (120EC): Chinese Studies and Asian Studies (60 EC): East Asian Studies tracks. The course is taught in Chinese. All students must meet one of the following minimum level of Chinese language proficiency requirements: CEFR level B1, which is roughly equivalent to new HSK 4 (with a test result of minimally 250 points) and TOCFL level 3. This course is designed based on the BA Mandarin program of Chinese Studies at Leiden University, where undergraduates receive approximately 300 contact hours and a 10-week intensive Mandarin training in a Mandarin speaking area (amounting to 60 ec in total).

Students are required to be able to read both traditional and simplified characters and to write either of them by hand.

Description

This course is a continuation of Advanced Mandarin 1. This is 2-hour per week course. The curriculum is based on the themes that are related to the Master’s program, such as politics, society, history, and economy. All listening materials are authentic materials (e.g., public speech, TV news, TV program, etc.). The reading materials are selected from a wide range of resources, such as, the articles from newspaper/magazines/ blogs; literature works: proses, short stories, or chapters from novels. Class activities include intensive and extensive listening& reading, discussion, oral presentation, and peer-editing. Students are expected to be thoroughly prepared and to contribute actively.

Course objectives

Listening: can understand spoken Chinese with/without accents, including topics relating to their academic interests; can understand formal and informal Chinese without too much effort; can infer the meanings from the context when encountering new words.
Speaking: can describe concrete as well as abstract ideas with advanced vocabulary and language structures, can do oral presentations about the topics that you find interesting, with special attention to fluency and complexity.

Reading: can read a wide range of longer authentic materials (e.g., proses, short stories); can digest a larger amount of reading materials with the aid of IT resources; can infer meanings from the context with little aid of a dictionary.

Writing: can write a short essay (800-900 characters) about the topics of the course; familiarity with common genres and styles of written Chinese; can use punctuations and format correctly; good command of advanced vocabulary and language structures.

Timetable

The timetables are available through My Timetable.

Mode of instruction

Seminar

Assessment method

Assessment and weighing

The final mark for the course is established by determining the weighted average of the following:
Partial Assessment Weighing

  • Oral assignment 20%

  • Written assignment 20%

  • Final exam (written exam) 60%

In order to pass the course, students need a passing mark (“voldoende”, i.e. “5.50” or higher) for the course as a whole AND for the final exam.

Resit

The re-sit exam for the final exam is only available to students whose mark of the final exam is insufficient. The re-sit exam will then make up 100% of the mark.

Inspection and feedback

How and when an exam review will take place will be disclosed together with the publication of the exam results at the latest. If a student requests a review within 30 days after publication of the exam results, an exam review will be organized.

Reading list

Class materials will be distributed during the term in Brightspace.

Registration

Enrolment through MyStudyMap is mandatory.
General information about course and exam enrolment is available on the website.

Registration À la carte education, Contract teaching and Exchange

Information for those interested in taking this course in the context of À la carte education (without taking examinations), e.g. about costs, registration and conditions.

Information for those interested in taking this course in the context of Contract teaching (including taking examinations), e.g. about costs, registration and conditions.

Exchange students having questions regarding registration, may contact the Humanities International Office.

Contact

Remarks

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