The Routledge Course in Modern Mandarin Chinese: Textbook Level 1, Simplified Characters

The Routledge Course in Modern Mandarin Chinese is a two-year undergraduate course for students with no prior background in Chinese study which takes students from complete beginner to post-intermediate level. 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 strong emphasis on the development of communicative skills. Each level of the course consists of a textbook and workbook, available separately in simplified or traditional character editions. Both workbooks include a free CD with all the dialogues from the textbooks and the necessary audio for the listening for information exercises. A companion website will provide expanded listening files and a broad range of resources for students and teachers. The benefits of this course include: focus on the long-term retention of vocabulary, characters and structures by reiterating structures and vocabulary throughout the book series carefully selected and staged introduction of characters with staged removal of pinyin to ensure recognition and use of characters clear and jargon-free explanations of use and structures, that are easy for students and teachers to understand extensive workbook exercises for homework, independent study, and classroom use focusing on all language skills and modalities including a vast inventory of carefully structured exercises focusing on listening comprehension, reading for information, and writing for communication an extensive inventory of classroom activities that guide students to develop a list of communication goals and key structures for each lesson allowing the student to assess progress cultural notes explaining the context of the dialogues language FAQs explaining aspects of Chinese language as they relate to the content and vocabulary in the lesson storyline following a group of students studying in China from Europe, North America and East Asia, making the book attractive to a variety of students and facilitating the introduction of Chinese culture full-color text design for the textbook and carefully matched designs for the traditional and simplified books, allowing for easy cross-reference. The course is also fully supported by an interactive Companion Website. The website contains a wealth of additional resources for both teachers and students. Teachers will find lesson plans in both English and Mandarin, providing a weekly schedule and overall syllabus for fall and spring, as well as activities for each lesson and answer keys. Students will be able to access downloadable character practice worksheets along with interactive pronunciation, vocabulary and character practice exercises. All the audio material necessary for the course is also available online and conveniently linked on screen to the relevant exercises for ease-of-use. For further details please visit http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415472517/ For bundle discounts please visit http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415596824/

Table of Contents:
1. Hello 2. What Country Are You From? 3. What is Your Name? 4. This is My Dad 5. How Many People Are in Your Family? 6. Shopping 7. How Much is it Altogether? 8. Happy Birthday 9. What Are You Doing Right Now? 10. What Did You Think of Yesterday’s Test? 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 15. Entertaining Guests 16. Talking About Summer Plans

About the Author :
Claudia Ross is Professor of Chinese at the College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts.  She has served as President of the Chinese Language Teachers Association and as Director of the CET Chinese Program in Beijing. Baozhang He is Associate Professor of Chinese at the College of the Holy Cross, Massachusetts. He has served as Director of the Chinese Language Program at Harvard University and as Head Instructor in the Princeton in Beijing language program. Pei-Chia Chen is a lecturer in Chinese at UC San Diego and has previously taught at Harvard University. Meng Yeh is Senior Lecturer in Chinese at Rice University. She has served as a Board Member of the Chinese Language Teachers Association and is a founding member of CLTA-TX. She is an AP Chinese consultant for the College Board and a certified Oral Proficiency Interviewer in Chinese for Language Testing International, ACTFL.

Review :
"I am deeply impressed by the pedagogical considerations that Prof. Ross and her team put into the project.The approaches to teaching Mandarin Chinese in this series reflected the authors' rich knowledge of the Chinese grammar and their vast experience in teaching the language. The materials developed are pedagogically well conceived and equally well supported by theories of language learning/teaching. A truly innovative and delightful addition to the Chinese teaching field."- Cecila Chang, Williams College, USA "This text offers a refreshing approach to learning Chinese that is lacking in the vast majority of learning materials. Each dialogue is contextualized so learners better understand how the language is used in a variety of communicative situations. Students learn not only what to say, but how to use the right language in a given context based on their role, and when and where the situation occurs. Sentence pyramid exercises provide a stepped approach that allows students to actually rehearse and perform the dialogues. The material is presented in manageable units with clear and concise explanations that are understandable to students not familiar with linguistics jargon. Valuable information on the social and cultural implications of the language is also provided. This is one of the few textbooks on the market that delays the introduction of Chinese characters. This insightful approach allows learners to gain a foundation in the spoken language before being inundated with characters to which they have little context in which to place them. Furthermore, these materials use an innovative diglot approach to introduce Chinese characters where newly learned characters are incorporated into pinyin texts. This effectively eases students into reading without overburdening them. By the end of the text, dialogues and other materials are presented almost entirely in Chinese characters. This approach provides excellent spiraling and reinforcement of characters learned."- Matthew Christensen, Brigham Young University, USA "One of the very few accessible and clearly structured textbooks for the complete beginner in Mandarin, which is absolutely designed with the non-native Chinese speaker in mind. The gradual introduction of the script, together with the clear but not overly simplistic grammatical explanations, will prove particularly useful for beginners."-Frances Weightman, The University of Leeds, UK "An excellent introductory course from a dedicated team. This course serves as a practical guide with the language knowledge and cultural tips you need for daily communication with the Chinese people."- Wei Jin, The School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, UK