Grade 7: Communicating

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

• discuss preferences and interests
• use appropriate forms of formal and informal address
• seek and grant permission, both formally and informally
• exchange information about interests and day-to-day situations, events, and activities

To view the prescribed learning outcomes for Communicating in other grades click on an icon below.

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

• Have students prepare short reports about themselves that include information about their preferences or interests. Ask students to interview classmates about their interests and report their findings to the class.
• Invite students to talk to one another about their weekends, then list their weekend activities. Suggest that they record selected activities in picture form and add captions in Pinyin. In small groups, invite students to share their pictorial representations, then choose one activity from each group member and ask for more details (e.g., location, admission fee). In this activity, students practise simple question patterns to exchange information.
• Have students provide photographs or drawings of themselves engaged in school activities, then present the pictures and discuss the events portrayed. Ask students to summarize or list school activities that occur during the year. As a class, discuss the activities students enjoy most or least. Display pictures of Chinese school scenes and have them discuss similarities and differences between activities in Canadian and Chinese schools.
• Show video segments of people seeking and granting permission (e.g., Qving wen wvo kveyvi ____________ Lvaojia ____________ Dvarvao nin le ____________ ).

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

• Work with students to develop a list of criteria or class expectations for communicating in Chinese. These can be the basis for a teacher or self-assessment checklist. Criteria might include:
  • uses appropriate forms of address
  • reproduces correct tones in familiar words
  • responds to questions and instructions that are given in Chinese
  • tries to answer in Chinese as often as possible
  • volunteers ideas and information in Chinese
  • tries to use patterns to form longer phrases and sentences, rather than giving one-word answers
  • practises new words and patterns
• When students report on their preferences and interests, recount weekend activities, or report on their interviews with classmates, look for evidence that they are:
  • able to make themselves understood in Chinese by using appropriate vocabulary
  • willing to take risks to add details or use unfamiliar language
  • using strategies such as gestures, body language, or visual props to support their verbal communication
  • beginning to use sequence words and transitions
  • recognizing familiar words and patterns in their classmates' accounts
  • able to ask for help or self-correct
• Ask students to role-play seeking and granting permission. Note the extent to which they demonstrate appropriate:
  • forms of address
  • levels of formality
  • gesture and body language
  • language patterns
  • responses that fit the established context

• Chinese Sentence Book
• Concise English-Chinese/Chinese-English Dictionary (Oxford)
• Let's Play Games In Chinese
• Long is a Dragon

• The Dragon's Tongue Series
• Speak Mandarin in Five Hundred Words

• Chinese Mandarin Resource Book - Volumes 1, 2, and 3
• Zhongguotong

• The Rosetta Stone Language Library - Chinese Mandarin I

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