Fundamental Spoken Chinese
Second Edition, Teacher’s Manual
Like its predecessor, this second edition of Fundamental Spoken Chinese places importance on a clear, systematic, and graduated introduction to the basic grammar and vocabulary of spoken Mandarin Chinese through chapters that center on sentence patterns and vocabulary rather than social functions or activities. The authors continue the tradition of separating the teaching of oral and written skills, leaving the instruction of reading and writing in Chinese characters exclusively to Fundamental Written Chinese, also in its second edition. The lessons in the two textbooks, however, are keyed to each other in terms of vocabulary and grammar, so they may be used simultaneously or the parallel written skills introduced at a later time.
The bilingual teacher’s manual provides detailed instructions on how the different types of drills, exercises, and activities in the Fundamental Spoken Chinese Exercise Book reinforce students’ oral and aural proficiency. These Core Pedagogical Instructions are followed, when appropriate, by brief summaries of grammatical explanations presented in the Fundamental Spoken Chinese textbook, together with their specific grammar note numbers for easy reference.
The essence of the Fundamental Chinese textbooks that distinguishes them from all others widely used today is their focus on building a Chinese language acquisition foundation in the learner’s linguistic mind—one that will enable them to acquire native or near-native proficiency. This approach formed the basis of some very successful textbooks produced decades ago by teams of truly bilingual-bicultural linguists from both sides of the English-Chinese divide. These pioneers achieved native proficiency in their second language and knew intuitively how to guide students on the path to effective language acquisition. Fundamental Spoken Chinese and Fundamental Written Chinese are a synthesis of their tried-and-true methodology with twenty-first-century innovations.
The Fundamental Chinese books are original, innovative, and replete with insightful observations on language and culture. The lessons are systematically laid out and include rich and varied exercises. Together the spoken and written volumes form a complete package for both self-study and classroom instruction.
Jiayan Lin (Author)
Jiayan Lin is a learning advisor at Massey University.
Margaret Lee (Author)
Margaret Lee taught Chinese at the tertiary level for more than thirty years and was a senior tutor at the University of Auckland.
Robert Sanders (Author)
Robert Sanders was a professor of Chinese language and Chinese linguistics for thirty-five years at universities in the United States, New Zealand and Japan.
