48
Languages and Literature of China and South East Asia
UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI NAPOLI "L'ORIENTALE"
Overview
Date/time interval
Syllabus
Course Objectives
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
Teaching Methods
The course is organized as follows:
- 54 hours of introductory lectures addressing grammar, syntax, lexical analysis (including synonyms, near-synonyms, and collocations/co-occurrences), register, as well as an introduction to the principles of translation and the use of relevant supporting tools;
- 120 hours of practical sessions led by native-speaking language instructors and subject specialists, held three times per week, two hours per session;
- a minimum of 400 hours of independent study.
The practical sessions involve the completion of exercises, in-class discussion, and the production of written compositions on assigned topics, following a task-based approach. These activities contribute fully to the achievement of the course learning objectives.
Assessment Methods
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 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 16-20), 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). Additional materials provided and covered in class during the course. 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
Course Language
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.