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Exploring in Chinese

Yale University Press

Contents

Acknowledgments.............................................................7Introduction................................................................8Unit E Meeting Miscellaneous Personal NeedsLesson 21. Exchanging Money.................................................11Lesson 22. Getting a Haircut................................................27Lesson 23. Advice on Problems with Service..................................39Lesson 24. Visiting a Health Clinic.........................................47Unit F-1 Getting to Know People and Their LivesLesson 25. Visiting a Home..................................................63Lesson 26. Morning Routine of a High School Student.........................81Lesson 27. A Woman Describes Her Daily Life.................................95Lesson 28. Physical Descriptions of People..................................111Unit F-2 Getting to Know People and Their Lives (cont.)Lesson 29. Getting to Know a New College Graduate...........................121Lesson 30. On Personality...................................................133Lesson 31. Getting to Know a University Administrator.......................151Lesson 32. A Father-Daughter Relationship...................................161Lesson 33. A Mother-Son Relationship........................................169Unit G Getting to Know the CommunityLesson 34. A Residential Neighborhood.......................................189Lesson 35. An Elementary School.............................................211Lesson 36. A Temple.........................................................229Lesson 37. Some Sports Facilities...........................................247

Introduction

The curriculum is based on edited video footage filmed in Beijing, China. Its content includes interviews, filmed interactions among two or more people, and records of common transactions, all of which were purposely unrehearsed and unscripted, in order to maximize the "naturalness" and spontaneity of the interactions. The on-camera interviewers included three U.S. students: Robyn Yee, a high school junior and an Intermediate Low speaker of Chinese; Todd Pavel, graduate student in Asian Studies and an Intermediate Mid speaker of Chinese; and James Yao, graduate student in Asian Studies and an Advanced speaker of Chinese. Each of the "interviewers" was given a variety of "assignments" ("Go in this store and buy some snacks" "Get a haircut from that man" "Ask that security guard about his background"). We also interviewed a variety of Chinese people about their lives. The cues were general: "Tell us about how you spend an average day," or "How should an American student go about making friends?" The Chinese respondents very naturally adjusted their level of speech downwards since they were faced with "foreigners," so that what we recorded was more nearly at the optimal "i+1" level for the intermediate-level learner, rather than the normally "too high" level recorded as native-speaker speech. Also, since all segments were unrehearsed and unscripted, what we preserved is a record of people interacting in authentic and lively fashion-trying to decipher what each other is saying, asking for confirmation, working around miscues-all the elements of a real-life conversation.

The curriculum is based on a DVD of 37 video segments arranged by topic and function. The first 20 lessons (volume 1) are more characteristic of the Intermediate Low/Mid level, focusing on daily life interactions and transactions. The remaining 17 lessons gradually become more descriptive/narrative, as is appropriate to moving toward the Intermediate High level. Each lesson offers two sound-tracks-the original sound recorded live (which is authentic and more interesting but sometimes harder to understand), and a dubbed soundtrack recorded in a studio (which is clearer but contains none of the color of the original, and does not quite match the cadence of the visuals).

The DVD is matched with learning activities organized into two volumes (20 lessons for the first semester-volume 1, and 17 for the second-volume 2), in the following format:

Previewing: generally, predicting the content of the video, to "activate schema." First viewing, in which the focus is on understanding the main ideas in the segment. Second viewing, to tease out supporting details included in the segment. Third viewing, to support linguistic work: focusing on specific useful new vocabulary and selected structural items. Cultural discussions may also be included here, although information on culture may be derived throughout the lesson. Post-viewing activities: Speaking activities, in which students spiral the content of the lesson into speaking about their own lives; Reading activities including notes/letters written by native speakers pertaining to the objectives of the lesson, and a series of exercises beginning with top-down strategies (in which students try to decipher the main ideas of the reading) and progressing to bottom-up strategies (in which students work on vocabulary and detailed comprehension); and a brief Writing activity, in which students take the content of the Reading unit and write something about themselves. Transcript of the video segment, given in traditional characters, simplified characters, pinyin, and English. This is provided for the convenience of both the teacher and the students, who might want to read quickly through after all the other exercises have been completed, to pick up more information about the content of the segment, and perhaps to answer any remaining questions about what was said. Our suggestion is not to read the transcript before doing all the exercises provided, or else students will not have the opportunity to develop comprehension strategies in authentic (or simulated authentic) situations. Students need to develop their tolerance for native-speaker speech, as well as their skills in guessing the meaning of what is said. The exercises throughout the curriculum are aimed at developing both tolerance and skills. Skipping ahead to the transcripts nullifies these benefits.

Where the U.S.-student interviewers or Chinese native speakers make significant errors in their speech, or state something in a markedly non-standard way, the student exercises will note this, and suggest alternative forms of expression. Negotiating errors and extracting meaning is an essential skill in real life. Casual speech, however, is not noted as erroneous. Rather, it is the focus of this curriculum; casual constructions add to the liveliness and authenticity of the text. It is our hope that the users of these materials will find the spontaneity and imperfections reflected in the recorded speech as captivating as we do.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from Exploring in Chineseby Cynthia Ning Copyright © 2008 by Yale University....