Description
The aim of this comprehensive course is to quickly enlarge student’s vocabulary. t is designed for students who have learned pinyin and the basic structural components of characters, preferably having completed Intensive Spoken Chinese and the Most Common Chinese Radicals. This textbook consists of five parts: character learning, word formation, oral training, character writing and reading.
- Character learning
The texts start with concentrated character learning: the student is expected to learn 30 new characters in each lesson, for a command of 750 characters after finishing the 25 lessons of this book. The character learning part has been designed n accordance with the following five principles:
- Combining the characters into a sentence
As it is rather difficult to remember 30 isolated characters, in each lesson they are combined into one sentence which forms the major text. By memorizing just one sentence, the student thus learns all the new characters in the lesson.
- Short sentences, containing as many new characters as possible
As the Chinese characters are hard to read and pronounce and one can remember the sound only after repeated reading, short sentences help to make this task easier. The texts are designed by using as few “old” characters as possible, keeping the repetition of characters to a minimum, so that the students can read and recite the texts repeatedly in the shortest possible time.
- The sentences are closely related to daily life
It has been shown that after a character or a word has been spoken in an oral class, it is easier for one to perceive and pronounce at this stage. If the content of the sentence is similar to that of everyday speech, it will be eve easier to remember the sound of it.
- The pronunciation and meaning of both the characters and the words they form should be introduced at the same time.
- Only commonly used characters are chosen.
All of the characters chosen her are the ones most frequently used in forming common words and phrases.
- Word formation
After introducing the 30 new characters, each text proceeds to provide 30 commonly used words formed by them on the left side of the second page in each lesson.
- Oral training
This section can be found on the right side of the second page in each lesson. The oral texts are closely related to daily communication and are compiled by incorporating newly learned characters. This art is prepared for reading aloud, and can also be employed for conversation practice.
- Character writing
Since the student has acquired the basic knowledge of how to write characters in the radicals and components course in the first stage, in this book the new characters are clearly shown at the bottom of the second page in each lesson, enlarged, for students to copy and practice.
- Reading
Starting at Lesson 10, ther is an article after a dw lessons. This is for the student to review the characters already learned and also rivide a transition from character learning to reding, which is the ultimate aim of character learning.
Also provided in the book are traditional character version and the English translation of the single-sentence texts, as well as the grammatical notes in both Chinese and English. They can be used at the teacher’s or the student’s discretion.
