Curriculum

The Chinese program offers Mandarin Chinese courses at all levels. Courses of elementary and intermediate Chinese are for students who do not have any Chinese language background. Students will develop Chinese language proficiency in both receptive and productive skills. They will also have an understanding of Chinese culture that enables them to interact with Chinese language users in linguistically and socially appropriate ways. Instructional materials and activities are learner-centered and task-based. Activities emphasize both skill-getting and skill-using. Drills and activities stimulating real life situations are carefully integrated to help students learn the correct form of the Chinese language as well as the appropriate ways of communicating in Chinese. Open-ended communicative activities simulating real life situations are carefully integrated to help students learn the correct forms and appropriate ways of communicating in Chinese. The Program also offers many Chinese culture, film and literature courses taught in English.

CHNS 1501 and 1502 are designed to help students develop the skills to comprehend and produce Chinese at the sentence level, and to handle simple survival situations. Conversation skills are emphasized. Reading and writing Chinese characters are also practiced. Restricted to nonnative speakers of Chinese

CHNS 2301 and 2302 are intermediate courses concentrating on acquiring the ability to understand and produce Chinese at the paragraph level. The courses also help students become acquainted with career opportunities related to China. Restricted to nonnative speakers of Chinese

CHNS 3301 and 3302 continue to develop communicative skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and culture understanding. Training on linguistically and stylistically formal language used in speeches and in various types of writings. Reading and writing skills are emphasized. Restricted to nonnative speakers of Chinese. Restricted to nonnative speakers of Chinese.

CHNS 3303 (Readings in Modern Chinese) is for students who have language background and received course credit of CHNS 2302 and / or 3301 by exam.  Readings include essays, stories, biographies, and criticisms that expose students with a variety of modern Chinese literary genres and some major substantive issues in modern China.

CHNS 3304 (Business Chinese) Business Chinese I is for students who finished CHNS 3301 or who have Chinese language background. The course covers oral and written communication with concentration on contemporary business policy and practice in modern China. The course offers understanding of differences and similarities in trade, finance, and business structures in cross-culture communications.

CHNS 3305 (Survey of Chinese Literature) is for students who have Chinese language background and received course credit of CHNS 2302 and / or 3301 by exam. Readings include essays, novels, and poems in the history of Chinese literature.

CHNS 3350 (Chinese Culture Through Films) provides a showcase to today’s China where economic reform has brought drastic changes to people’s daily life. The films present the social transformation in the last two decades (the 1980s-90s) and the changes of people’s understanding of Chinese modernity and economic globalization.  They also reveal conflicts between conventional Chinese values and the modern legal system; fast economic development and traditional ways of living;  the prosperity of cities and the poverty of the country;  and materialism and a good sense of values. Films, as a medium, are integrated in economy, culture and value of a nation, mediate among them, and provide us with the special instance to examine and understand the respective culture and society. All the films have received prestigious national and international awards and prizes. . All the films have English subtitles, and readings are in English. No previous knowledge of Chinese language is required.

CHNS 3352 (Chinese Culture and Society through Modern Literature) A Core Curriculum Course for Humanities. This course provides an understanding of modern China through literary writings. Readings are selected from political, economic, social, and literary perspectives to help students develop their literary critiques and intellectual inquiry. All readings are in English translation. No previous knowledge of Chinese language is required.

CHNS 3354 (Chinese Language and Culture) provides an understanding of the nature of the Chinese language, and particularly the nature of the Chinese writing system. The Chinese language, especially written language, is one of the most powerful symbols of Chinese cultural unity. The understanding of the language bears broadly on such areas as culture, linguistics, psychology, education, and political unit. Although this course is on the study of the Chinese language, no previous knowledge of Chinese language is necessarily required.  (Knowing the language can be a plus).

CHNS 3398 (Chinese Literature in Translation) provides an understanding of contemporary China where economic reform has brought drastic changes to people’s daily life. The course presents the social transformation in the last two decades and the changes of people’s understanding of Chinese modernity and economic globalization. Readings are all in English including short novels, poems, and essays.

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