Grade 12: Communicating

This sub-organizer contains the following sections:
Prescribed Learning Outcomes
Suggested Instructional Strategies
Suggested Assessment Strategies
Recommended Learning Resources

PRESCRIBED LEARNING OUTCOMES

It is expected that students will:

exchange ideas and thoughts on topics of interest
express plans, goals, and intentions
give reasons and information to support points of view on various issues
use idiomatic expressions
interact in situations drawn from real life

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

SUGGESTED INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGIES

By Grade 12, students should be able to demonstrate greater confidence and sophistication in their use of Chinese in daily interactions at home, at school, and in the community. In addition to listening and speaking activities, written tasks (e.g., letters, reports, journal entries) are a regular expectation.

Have students fill out job applications and role-play interviews for different positions advertised (in Chinese) in a local Chinese-language newspaper or on the Internet. Invite a Chinese-speaking business person to role-play brief interviews with students.
Introduce business vocabulary for transactions (e.g., banking, marketing, accounting). Invite students in pairs to role-play business situations (e.g., conducting a banking transaction in which one student plays the customer and the other the bank teller).
Ask students to role-play conversations with their parents in which they discuss their plans following graduation (e.g., work, travel, further education). Encourage students to give convincing reasons why they believe their choices are best for them.
Suggest that students work in small groups to brainstorm reasons why people become vegetarian. After group discussions, ask the whole class to prepare and complete a questionnaire on personal eating habits. Then have students, in pairs or as a class, discuss the pros and cons of becoming vegetarian.

SUGGESTED ASSESSMENT STRATEGIES

Assessment should continue to focus on communication and risk taking. Students' facility with language is an important focus of assessment; it allows students to communicate for an increasing range of purposes, both in and outside of school.

When students engage in role plays (e.g., job interviews, banking transactions), assess the extent to which they are able to:
- provide clear and comprehensible messages that are relevant to the situations and their purposes
- include relevant details, reasons, and examples
- use an increasing range of vocabulary, including idioms, to make meaning clear
- use accurate pronunciation and intonation, with some flow or fluency
- demonstrate appropriate use of structures and patterns
- use strategies (e.g., gestures, repeating phrases more slowly, rephrasing statements) to maintain interaction and avoid communication breakdown
- avoid pauses that interfere with meaning
When students represent information and ideas in writing, look for evidence of features such as:
- appropriate level of formality
- clear focus on central ideas or issues
- accurate and detailed information
- logical sequence and organization, using transitions appropriately
- varied and appropriate vocabulary
- appropriate structures and patterns
- taking risks to go beyond vocabulary and structures practised in class in order to enhance meaning or add precision

Provide a minute or two at the beginning of each class for students to choose daily goals. At the end of the class, check on whether they were able to accomplish them.

RECOMMENDED LEARNING RESOURCES

Print Material

Chinese Unmasked - Volumes 1 & 2
Concise English-Chinese/Chinese-English Dictionary (Oxford)
Let's Play Games In Chinese
Taiwan Today

Video

The Dragon's Tongue Series

Multimedia

Chinese Mandarin Resource Book - Volumes 1, 2, and 3
Hanyu (Revised Edition)
Zhongguotong

CD-ROM

Chinese and Characters
The Rosetta Stone Language Library - Chinese Mandarin I

Last Modified: March 24, 1999

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