LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE OF CHINA AND SOUTH EAST ASIA I (MOD. A)
cod. 1006621

Academic year 2024/25
2° year of course - First semester
Professor
Giulia FALATO
Academic discipline
Lingue e letterature della cina e dell'asia sud-orientale (L-OR/21)
Field
Lingue e traduzioni
Type of training activity
Characterising
30 hours
of face-to-face activities
6 credits
hub: PARMA
course unit
in ITALIAN

Learning objectives

By attending the Language section (Modulo A) learners will be able to acquire about 100 characters and 200 words. In addition to this, learners will be introduced to the main phonetic, morphologic and syntactical features of the Chinese language, which will enable them to develop basic language and communicative competence, and to familiarise themselves with locative verbs, verbs of existence, measure words, affermative, negative ad interrogative sentences and some modal verbs.

The literary section will enable students to achieve a general overview on crucial literary topics, such as confucianism, Tang poetry, historiographic works. These topics will be integrated and further developed in Mod. B.

Prerequisites

No previous knowledge of the Chinese language is required.

Course unit content

Language section: introduction to Chinese phonetics and script; greetings, self-introductions; asking and expressing nationality, age and origin; talking about hobbies and interests; talking about one's family and profession, expressing quantities; describing physical qualities, expressing opinions.
Literary section: introduction to the Chinese script, Confucianism and the One Hundred Schools of Thought, introduction to historiography and poetry.

Full programme

For those who attended the course:

Language section: Comunicare in Cinese, vol 1 (units 1-5 included).
Literary section:
Pozzi & Lavagnino's Cultura Cinese (chapters 1, 3, 4 and 6), plus reading materials uploaded on Elly
Additional mandatory reading:
• Confucio, Dialoghi, a cura di T. Lippiello, Einaudi, 2003

For those who did not attend the course:

Language section:
Please refer to the programme for course attendees.
Literary section
Please refer to the programme for course attendees, plus:
G. Bertuccioli, La letteratura cinese, L'Asino d'Oro 2013 (chapters 1, 2 e 3)

Bibliography

Masini, Romagnoli, Zhang e Chang, Comunicare in Cinese, vol.1, Hoepli 2021 (Units 1-5)

Lavagnino, Pozzi, Cultura cinese, segno, scrittura e civiltà. Carocci editore, 2013 (chap. 1,3,4,6)

Teaching methods

Lecture

Assessment methods and criteria

Written and oral exam

The written test is mandatory to attend the oral exam, and is divided into two parts: grammar (50 points) and translation (50 points). Communicative skills are assessed during the oral exam, by means of a conversation with the language instructor and a presentation of a pre-assigned topic, and through a translation test with the professor in charge of the course, where students are required to read, translate and answer questions related to texts included in the textbook.

The literature test is based on the program assigned during the academic year, with questions in Italian aimed at ascertaining knowledge of genres, works and key elements of Chinese literature. The knowledge and skills such a test aims to verify are: oral competence in the Chinese language corresponding to the A1 level, the identification of characters, radicals, the main grammatical and syntactic structures, and a translation competence corresponding to the level to be ascertained.
The final grade will result from the average of the grade reported in the written test and the grade reported in the oral test.

An insufficient mark is determined by a lack of knowledge of the basic contents of the course, by the inability to express oneself in a Chinese that corresponds to the A1 level; from the lack of independent preparation, from the inability to decode texts and to identify characters and grammatical or syntactic structures. A sufficient mark (18-23/30) is determined by students successfully demonstrating that they have learned the essential contents of the course; by their ability to express themselves in a Chinese appropriate to the topic and consistent with the A1 level; from a sufficient level of independent preparation, ability to solve problems related to decoding texts, as well as competence in the history of literature. Scores in the medium range (24-27/30) are conferred to students who demonstrate having a more than sufficient (24-25/30) or good (26-27/30) level of the assessment indicators listed above. The highest scores (from 28/30 to 30/30 with honours) are conferred to students who demonstrate an excellent level of the evaluation indicators listed above.

Other information

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2030 agenda goals for sustainable development

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