Modern Mandarin Chinese is a two-year undergraduate course for students with no prior background in Chinese study. Designed to build a strong foundation in both the spoken and written language, it develops all the basic skills such as pronunciation, character writing, word use, and structures, while placing a strong emphasis on the development of communicative skills.
Each level of the course consists of a textbook and workbook in simplified Chinese. A free companion website provides all the audio for the course with a broad range of interactive exercises and additional resources for students’ self-study, along with a comprehensive instructor’s guide with teaching tips, assessment and homework material, and a full answer key.
Key changes to this new edition:
An increased number of vocabulary and characters introduced. 255 characters are introduced in this second edition for active production. Dialogues and example sentences are also presented in full-character format for passive recognition, and to provide additional challenge for more advanced students.
Additional exercises in the workbooks and online to support the expanded number of words and characters incorporated into the textbooks.
New cross-references between the textbooks, workbooks, and companion website facilitate using all the resources in an integrated manner.
Greatly enhanced and re-designed website.
Retaining its focus on communicative skills and the long-term retention of characters, the text is now presented in simplified characters and pinyin from the outset with a gradual and phased removal of pinyin as specific characters are introduced and learnt. This unique approach allows students to benefit from the support of pinyin in the initial stages as they begin speaking while ensuring they are guided and supported towards reading only in characters.
Topic 1: Identifying yourself, your family, and others 1. Hello 2. What Country Are You From? 3. What is Your Name? 4. This is My Family 5. How Many People Are in Your Family? Topic 2: Shopping for everyday items 6. Shopping 7. How Much is it Altogether? Topic 3: Talking about every day activities 8. Happy Birthday 9. What Are You Doing Right Now? 10. What Did You Think of Yesterday’s Test? Topic 4: Talking about location and directions 11. Come to My House for Dinner 12. How Do I Get to Your House From My Dorm? 13. My Home is Easy to Find 14. There is a Very Pretty Park Behind My House Topic 5: Entertaining guests and talking about future plans 15. Entertaining Guests 16. Talking About Summer Plans