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Language IV: Modern Chinese

Code: 101569
Credits: 12
2026/2027
Degree programme Type Course
East Asian Studies OB 2
East Asian Studies OP 4

Contact lecturer

Name :
Lingzhi Nie
Email :
lingzhi.nie@uab.cat

Group languages

You can consult this information at the end of the document.

Prerequisites

Students must have passed Modern Chinese levels I, II and III.

Objectives

The aim of this course is to consolidate and expand students' basic knowledge of the Chinese language and to strengthen the development of the four communicative language skills. Upon completion of the course, students will be able to understand frequently used expressions related to areas of immediate relevance, such as providing basic information about themselves and their families, shopping, talking about places of interest and occupations, among others. They will be able to communicate when carrying out routine tasks requiring only simple and direct exchanges of information on familiar and everyday matters. They will also be able to describe, in simple terms, aspects of their past and their surroundings, as well as matters related to their immediate needs (approximately corresponding to level A2.2 of the CEFR).

Learning outcomes

  1. Developing self-learning strategies.
  2. Solving problems of intercultural communication.
  3. Ensuring the quality of one's own work.
  4. Apply knowledge of lexis, morphosyntax, texts, rhetoric and linguistic variation.
  5. Apply strategies to understand written texts from various different contexts.
  6. Apply strategies to understand oral texts from various different contexts.
  7. Apply strategies to produce written texts for different contexts and for specific communicative purposes.
  8. Apply strategies to produce oral texts for different contexts and for specific communicative purposes.
  9. Understand the communicative intent and the meaning of written texts from various different contexts.
  10. Understand the communicative intent and the meaning of oral texts from various different contexts.
  11. Produce written texts that are appropriate to the context and linguistically correct.
  12. Produce written texts for different contexts and for specific communicative purposes.
  13. Produce oral texts that are appropriate to the context and linguistically correct.
  14. Produce oral texts for different contexts and for specific communicative purposes.
  15. Deal with interferences between the working languages.

Contents

The subject's content can be divided into the following areas:

Phonological and writing systems

  • Pronunciation and intonation.
  • The pinyin romanisation system and its spelling conventions.
  • Basic principles of Chinese writing: identification of character structure, analysis of characters into their different components (radicals, semantic and phonetic components), stroke order, number and types of strokes, and familiarisation with the most common semantic and phonetic components.
  • Recognition and both handwritten and digital production of previously studied characters, together with more than 250 new high-frequency Chinese characters.
  • Simplified Chinese characters (recognition and production) and Traditional Chinese characters (recognition).

Communicative and sociocultural contents

Mastery of the basic vocabulary and grammatical structures required to:

  • Provide basic personal information by expressing likes, preferences and interests, and talking about hobbies and leisure activities;
  • Communicate in order to carry out simple everyday tasks, such as buying gifts, asking about prices and bargaining;
  • Describe aspects of the surrounding environment, including landscapes and people's physical appearance and personality;
  • Describe past events by talking about travel experiences;
  • Discuss matters related to immediate needs, such as ordering food and drinks, talking about illnesses, and giving and understanding simple advice in everyday situations.

Learning activities and methodology

Title Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Oral and written comprehension exercises, text composition, correction of the exercises done and troubleshooting. 90 3.6 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12
Reading, oral and written comprehension tasks, written production and class activities. 90 3.6 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12
Study and practice of the new words in each lesson, preparation of activities for oral, written and reading comprehension. 90 3.6 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12

The formative activities are divided into directed activities, supervised activities, and autonomous activities.

Directed activities: the teacher will explain the most important contents of each unit; students will practise reading out loud and do exercises in oral and written comprehension, as well as oral expression exercises. They will practise new grammar points and vocabulary, sight translation, revise material already covered, etc. Class activities, therefore, will be varied and of different types (oral and written, individual and in groups). In some cases, they will be assessed (students will be assessed on whether they regularly prepare the tasks set by the teacher, as well as their dedication to the subject and the pace of their work).

Supervised activities (both face-to-face and virtual): these will include practising oral comprehension and expression, as well as the completion of exercises.


Autonomous activities: will consist of practising calligraphy, studying the characters and vocabulary, preparing and revising texts and new grammar points, completing and self-checking exercises (via the teaching web) and writing tasks.


The student will need to devote approximately 50 hours’ study to each teaching unit, including the supervised and autonomous activities (preparation, practice exercises and revision). This level of commitment is essential to ensure that students follow the subject satisfactorily and achieve the appropriate pace of work.

Annotation: within the schedule set by the centre or degree programme, 15 minutes of one class will be reserved for students to evaluate their lecturers and their courses or modules through questionnaires.

Assessment

Continuous assessment activities

Title Weight Hours ECTS Learning outcomes
Tests 70% (30% + 40%) 10 0.4 1, 4, 5, 7, 9, 15
Exercises (Listening tasks and tasks of comprehension and expression written) 30% 20 0.8 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15

Continuous Assessment

Students are expected to demonstrate their progress through various activities and exams. Deadlines for these assessment tasks will be announced in class. Assessment is divided into two main components:

Portfolio (30%)

  • Dictations
  • Chinese language use exercises
  • Oral and written comprehension and production activities

Exams (70%)

  • Two exams will be given: one at mid-semester (30%) and another at the end of the semester (40%), covering all the skills developed during the course.

Related matters

The above information on assessment, assessment activities and their weighting is merely a guide. The subject's lecturer will provide full information when teaching begins.

Review

When publishing final marks prior to recording them on students' transcripts, the lecturer will provide written notification of a date and time for reviewing assessment activities. Students must arrange reviews by agreement with the lecturer.

Missed/failed assessment activities

Students may retake assessment activities they have failed or compensate for any they have missed, provided that those they have actually performed account for a minimum of 66.6% (two thirds) of the subject's final mark and that they have a weighted average mark of at least 3.5. Under no circumstances may an assessment activity worth 100% of the final mark be retaken or compensated for.

The lecturer will inform students of the procedure involved, in writing, when publishing final marks prior to recording them on transcripts. The lecturer may set one assignment per failed or missed assessment activity or a single assignment to cover a number of such activities.

In the case of retaking an exam (or retaking or compensating for any other assessment activity), the highest mark that can be obtained is 5/10.

The portfolio is not eligible for resit. If a student fails the course, only the exams may be resat during the resit period.

Classification as "not assessable"

In the event of the assessment activities a student has performed accounting for just 25% or less of the subject's final mark, their work will be classified as "not assessable" on their transcript.

Misconduct in assessment activities

Students who engage in misconduct (plagiarism, copying, personation, etc.) in an assessment activity will receive a mark of “0” for the activity in question. In the case of misconduct in more than one assessment activity, the students involved will be given a final mark of “0” for the subject.

Students may not retake assessment activities in which they are found to have engaged in misconduct. Plagiarism is considered to mean presenting all or part of an author's work, whether published in print or in digital format, as one's own, i.e. without citing it. Copying is considered to mean reproducing all or a substantial part of another student's work. In cases of copying in which it is impossible to determine which of two students has copied the work of the other, both will be penalised.

Use of AI

In this course, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies may or may not be permitted depending on the activity. The permitted and prohibited uses in each case will be detailed in the course introduction. Students must clearly identify which parts were generated using AI technologies, specify the tools used, and include a critical reflection on how these tools influenced the process and the final result of the activity. A lack of transparency regarding the use of AI in graded assignments will be considered a breach of academic integrity and may result in a partial or total penalty on the assignment grade, or more severe sanctions in serious cases.

More information: http://www.uab.cat/web/study-abroad/undergraduate/academic-information/evaluation/what-is-it-about-1345670077352.html


Single assessment

This subject may be assessed under the single assessment system in accordance with the terms established in the academic regulations of the UAB and the assessment criteria of the Faculty of Translation and Interpreting.

Students must make an online request within the period established by the faculty and send a copy to the teacher responsible for the subject, for the record.

Single assessment will be carried out in person on one day during week 16 or 17 of the semester. The Academic Management Office will publish the exact date and time on the faculty website.

On the day of the single assessment, teaching staff will ask the student for identification, which should be presented as a valid identification document with a recent photograph (student card, DNI/NIE or passport).

Single assessment activities

The final grade for the subject will be calculated according to the following percentages:

  • Oral exam 30%
  • Written exam 30%
  • Exam about other skills 40%

Grade revision and resit procedures for the subject are the same as those for continual assessment. See the section above in this study guide.


Bibliography

Reference textbooks

  • Qi, Shaoyan & Zhang, Jie (2014). Discover China: Student's Book (Libro del Alumno 2). Oxford: Macmillan Education; Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.
  • Wang, Dan (2014). Discover China: Workbook (Libro de ejercicios 2). Oxford: Macmillan Education; Beijing: Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

Both the textbook and activity book are necessary.

Reference works

  • Álvarez, José Ramón. 2000. La pronunciación del chino hablado (putonghua) para hispanohablantes. Taipei: Lanbridge Press cop.
  • Casas-Tost, Helena; Rovira-Esteva, Sara (Eds.). 2015. Guía de estilo para el uso de palabras de origen chino. Madrid: Adeli. Accés digital en accés obert: https://ddd.uab.cat/record/180644
  • Casas-Tost, H., & Rovira-Esteva, S. (Eds.). 2021. Guia d’estil per al tractament de mots xinesos en català. Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament de Cultura. Format digital en accés obert: https://ddd.uab.cat/record/133473
  • Casas, Helena; Rovira, Sara; Suárez, Anne-Hélène. 2024. Lengua china para traductores: 学中文,做翻译 (Vols. I y II). Bellaterra: Servei de Publicacions de la UAB. (Materials, 188 i 198). Format digital en accés obert: https://publicacions.uab.cat/llibres/lengua-china-para-traductores-volumen-7a-ed
  • Fisac, Taciana. 2024. Claves de la gramática china. Biblioteca de China Contemporánea, 35. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra.
  • Liu Xun (ed.) El Nuevo Libro de Chino Práctico. (I) Pequín: Beijing Language and Culture University Press, 2009.
  • López Calvo, Francisco; Zhao, Baoyan. 2013. Guía esencial de la lengua china. Madrid: Adeli Ediciones.
  • Martínez-Robles, David. 2007. La lengua china: historia, signo y contexto. Una aproximación sociocultural. Barcelona: Editorial UOC.
  • Rovira-Esteva, Sara. 2010. Lengua y escritura chinas: Mitos y realidades. Barcelona: Edicions Bellaterra.
  • Xu, Zhenghui; Zhou, Minkang. 2008. Gramática china. Materials, 30. Bellaterra: Servei de Publicacions de la UAB.

Paper dictionaries:

  • Zhou, Minkang. 1999. Diccionari Català-Xinès, Xinès-Català. Barcelona: Enciclopèdia Catalana. (Diccionaris de l’Enciclopèdia).
  • Zhou, Minkang. 2006. Diccionari Castellà-Xinès,Xinès-Castellà. Barcelona: Editorial Herder.

Software

eChinese Tools: Mil y una herramientas para aprender chino: https://dtieao.uab.cat/txicc/echinese/

eChinese Plus: https://dtieao.uab.cat/gelea2lt/echineseplus/

In this course, the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies may or may not be permitted depending on the activity. The permitted and prohibited uses in each case will be detailed in the course introduction. Students must clearly identify which parts were generated using AI technologies, specify the tools used, and include a critical reflection on how these tools influenced the process and the final result of the activity. A lack of transparency regarding the use of AI in graded assignments will be considered a breach of academic integrity and may result in a partial or total penalty on the assignment grade, or more severe sanctions in serious cases.

Course groups and languages

The information provided is provisional until November 30. After this date, you will be able to consult the language of each group through this link. To access the information, you will need to enter the course CODE

Type of teaching Group Language Semester Shift
(PAUL) Classroom practices 1 Chinese second semester morning-mixed