Intermediate Chinese Speaking (1)

Author: Liu Delian
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-03-01
Features: Learning a foreign language should, in theory, emphasize listening, speaking, reading, and writing equally. However, in actual teaching, it can often be adjusted to varying degrees based on students' proficiency and needs. In recent years, many universities in China have set up separate oral Chinese courses for foreign language teaching, focusing on listening and speaking training, which is highly necessary. Foreign friends studying Chinese in China face a completely different environment compared to studying in their own countries. Once they arrive in China, they urgently feel the need to improve their oral skills to adapt to the unfamiliar language and living environment. Relying solely on general Chinese courses to learn grammar, vocabulary, and sentence structures progressively is far from sufficient to meet their daily listening and speaking needs. Dedicated oral courses specifically designed for them can effectively address this gap. In recent years, some textbooks have been published in China specifically for foreign friends learning oral Chinese, each approaching the issue of highlighting oral characteristics and creating a clear distinction from other Chinese courses. However, it should be said that this remains an unsatisfactorily resolved problem. Based on the experience of previous textbook authors, this textbook strives for innovation and breakthroughs, emphasizing its unique features as an oral Chinese course. These features are primarily reflected in the following aspects:
First, several main characters are woven throughout the textbook, each with distinct personality traits, allowing them to speak in different styles, avoiding the monotonous and dry Q&A scenarios often seen in books where characters lack individuality.
Second, it pays attention to social trends, promptly discarding outdated or soon-to-be-outdated language, and looks ahead when arranging text content and language. It includes introductions to emerging social phenomena and related conversational content in the lessons, such as riding etiquette for various new modes of transportation, knowledge about mobile phones and pagers, and so on.
Third, it provides a large number of practical exercises that progress from simple to complex, shifting the focus from "word-based" to "sentence-based" learning. The emphasis is placed on situational dialogues, teaching students to express appropriate language in different scenarios.
Fourth, systematic explanations of oral Chinese knowledge. After each unit, there is a section titled "Oral Chinese Knowledge," which systematically summarizes frequently used linguistic phenomena in oral communication, ranging from oral phonetics to grammar. Follow-up exercises are then provided to help students reinforce their learning.
Fifth, supplementary common phrases for oral Chinese. After each unit, an additional section titled "Common Oral Phrases" is added, categorizing and appropriately summarizing frequently used communicative language in oral Chinese. This helps students understand different ways of expressing themselves in the same situation.