48
Languages and Literature of China and South East Asia
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI "L'ORIENTALE"
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
ABILITY TO APPLY KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING
The course thoroughly illustrates the syntactic structures and lexical peculiarities of written Mandarin Chinese through the reading and translation of texts (both authentic and didactic) of varying nature and difficulty. The same expanded lexical and syntactic knowledge is applied to intermediate-advanced spoken language, enabling students to use these skills in real-life communication situations.
ADDITIONAL EXPECTED LEARNING OUTCOMES
Autonomy of Judgment:
Students are expected to manage the acquired competencies with a critical attitude and independent judgment, utilizing the learned linguistic functions in appropriate contexts.
Communication Skills:
Students will strengthen their ability to communicate in a simple yet structured manner about everyday and familiar topics (work, study, leisure, etc.).
Learning Skills:
Students should have developed the necessary skills to pursue further studies with a high degree of autonomy.
Course Prerequisites
Having already acquired basic and intermediate knowledge of Standard Chinese (corresponding to the content of Chinese Language courses 1 and 2)
Teaching Methods
The course will consist of 48 hours of lectures delivered by the Italian teacher, supplemented by 120 hours of practice sessions led by native-speaking language assistants and experts, along with a minimum of 350 hours of individual study.
Assessment Methods
Assessment is conducted both during the year and at the end of the course. Throughout the year, there will be two mid-term evaluations (approximately at the end of each semester) covering writing and composition, listening, and conversation, whose results will be considered in the final exam assessment.
The final exam consists of both an online language proficiency test and an in-person oral exam:
- Online test: grammar exercises; listening exercises; translation.
- Oral exam: reading, translation from Chinese to Italian, and analysis of one or more passages covered in class during the course.
For students who did not take or did not pass the midterm tests:
- Oral interview in Chinese (online, after the online test);
- Written composition of 150–200 characters (in person, before the oral exam).
Note: Passing the online test is a prerequisite for admission to the oral exam. Students who are unable to take the midterm tests or who fail them will take more comprehensive final exams, both online and oral, covering the same content and skills assessed during the midterms (writing, composition, listening, speaking).
Languages of the exam: Italian and Chinese.
Evaluation Criteria:
For the online test, each question is assigned a score; the test is considered passed if 60% of the total score is achieved. For the oral exam, in addition to the results of the mid-term evaluations, the following will be considered: pronunciation, comprehension and interaction abilities, the capacity to read, navigate, and translate a brief passage using previously studied words and grammatical structures, recognizing these structures, and applying them to similar examples.
Texts
Essential materials::
- Masini, F. et al., Il cinese per gli italiani, corso intermedio (unità 17-20), Milano, Hoepli, 2010
- Masini, F. et al., Il cinese per gli italiani, corso avanzato, Milano, Hoepli, 2012.
- Cigliano M., Varriano V., Tang X., Shangke le! Quaderno di lettura e composizione, Le Monnier, 2024
- Paternicò, L.M., Varriano, V., Tian H., Grammatica della lingua cinese, Torino, UTET 2021
- Paternicò, L.M., Varriano, V., Tian H., Grammatica della lingua cinese, Eserciziario, Torino, UTET 2022
- Raini, E., Wang R., La pronuncia del cinese, Milano, Hoepli 2023 (capp. 7-9).
Ulteriori testi forniti dal docente e affrontati in aula durante il corso
Supplementary Materials (particularly for students not attending classes)
- Arcodia, G.F., Basciano, B., Linguistica cinese, Bologna, Pàtron, 2016.
- Casacchia, G. -Bai Yukun, Dizionario cinese-italiano, Venezia, Cafoscarina, 2013
- Sepe, A., Tian H., Impariamo a pronunciare il cinese, Roma, Orientalia 2020
Contents
CHINESE LANGUAGE III (upper intermediate)
TOPICS
1. Directional complements and their figurative usage
2. Figurative usage of interrogative pronouns
3. Rhetorical usage of interrogatives
4. Syntax of complex sentences
5. Text syntagmatic analysis
6. Topic-comment structure
7. Vocabulary: synonyms, quasi-synonyms, collocations (co-occurrences), specialized vocabulary
8. Differences between spoken and written language
9. Introduction to the principles of translation
10. Usage of the main tools for translation
Course Language
Italian and Chinese
More information
Non-attending students are encouraged to frequently check the notice board and to contact the instructor via email well in advance of their chosen exam date.