Introductory description

This module will be offered to students who already have a good knowledge of Chinese, for example, 2 years or more of intensive study or work in the native speaking countries, good A level, or those who have completed Chinese 5 or equivalent levels. It aims to develop linguistic competence and cultural awareness in accomplishing a broad range of complex and non-routine tasks across a wide and often unpredictable variety of business contexts. Simplified Chinese characters will be taught and assessed.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Discussion topics and business knowledge contents are based on the materials used.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate increased intercultural knowledge and understanding of the business world in the Chinese-speaking community.
• Gather information from authentic texts on a variety of informal and formal/technical/business genres.
• Use their enhanced knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, syntax and register to produce formal business letters and reasonably long reports
• Communicate orally in Chinese with developed accuracy and fluency in a range of predictable and unpredictable business contexts.
• Critically evaluate texts relating to culture and engage where appropriate with scholarly debates
• Conduct and present independent research into one area of culture

Indicative reading list

Materials from different sources

International

All modules delivered in SMLC are necessarily international. Students engage with themes and ideas from a culture other than that of the UK and employ their linguistic skills in the analysis of primary materials from a non-Anglophone context. Students will also be encouraged to draw on the experiences of visiting exchange students in the classroom and will frequently engage with theoretical and critical frameworks from across the world.

Subject specific skills

This module will develop students’ linguistic skills through engaging with primary materials in the target language.
Strategies for understanding gist and specific information
Intercultural competence
Strategies to communicate effectively both in writing and orally in Chinese

Transferable skills

Communication skills: writing and oral presentation, defending one’s point of view.
Intellectual skills: critical thinking, analysis.
Organisational skills: independent work, time management.
Interpersonal skills: flexibility, adaptability and the ability to work with others.
Digital skills