China Focus is a set of
comprehensive Chinese teaching materials specially designed for the Chinese
audiovisual-speaking course. The video clips are extracted from contemporary
Chinese social hot issues, feature programs, news, sitcoms, documentaries, talk
shows, interviews, entertainment programs, films and TV plays, micro films,
advertisements, songs, etc. Using abundant online video resources, it builds a
natural-language-based classroom teaching environment, giving full play to the
Chinese audiovisual-speaking course's function of being a window to the
society, and promoting the integration of language learning and cultural
understanding.
This set of materials is divided into six levels, each of which
is composed of several themes, encompassing society, economy, culture,
education, life, love, and art. Several course modules are designed under each
theme. The intermediate level (I) includes 10 volumes, each taking 4 class
hours and covering the communication functions and scenes commonly used in the elementary
level, intermediate level and advanced level. Teachers can develop a
personalized assortment of teaching materials based on the themes they are
interested in, which can either be independently used in an
audiovisual-speaking course, or as exercise materials in a comprehensive class,
speaking class, listening class and other classes.
The Classification of China
Focus
Level
Vocabulary
Learned
Speed of Speaking (Characters/Minute)
Average Sentence
Length
Average
Number of New Words/Hundred Words
Chinese Proficiency (Referring to the
Levels of HSK)
Elementary (I)
300
160-180
6
5
HSK Level 2
Elementary (II)
600
180-200
8
6
HSK Level 3
Intermediate (I)
1200
200-230
9
7
HSK Level 4
Intermediate (II)
2500
220-250
10
7
HSK Level 5
Advanced (I)
5000
240-280
11
8
HSK Level 6
Advanced (II)
5000+
250-300
12
8
HSK Level 6+
The intermediate Level (I) includes Public Welfare, Dream, Hobbies,
Occupations, Love, Family, Aspirations, Life, Campus, etc.
Wang Tao, a teacher of Beijing International Studies University,
is devoted to studying Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language, and focuses his
research areas on Chinese language processing and computer-based studies. He
participated in the design and development of Jinshan Typing software and
assumed the chief responsibility of constructing the TCFL digital resources
database of Beijing International Studies University and other scientific
programs organized by MOE and Beijing City. He wrote a textbook entitled The Basic Computer-Based Chinese Language
Applications for International Students and published a number of papers. Besides
these, he won the champion in the 6th Contest of Young Teachers of Beijing
International Studies University and got the first prize in the 2nd Multimedia
Education Software Contest of Beijing.