ENGINEERING TRIPOS PART IIA - 2012/2013

Project SL7 - Chinese

Leader: Ms S Deng

Project Type: Standard
Project Category: Language
Prerequisites: previous or current study of Chinese at intermediate or advanced level
Timing: Wednesdays pm, plus Monday or Tuesday am

TOPICS

• The Three Gorges Dam
• The Chinese Space Programme
• Shanghai Maglev Train

SUMMARY

Students will be encouraged to research, dissect and find solutions to technology and its application to China. This should be done by using all four linguistic skills and a specific knowledge of the correct terminology and structure of Chinese.

Two project headings will be offered:

1. A long oral presentation with a short written report.
2. A long written report with a short oral presentation.

AIMS

• To use Chinese in the context of ‘languages for work and life’ by including specific scientific and engineering tasks which require specific technical input and knowledge.
• To encourage students to adopt the mode of ‘learning languages for life’ by stimulating independent study and research.
• To increase language performance by means of practice and reinforcement of all four linguistic skills (listening, reading, writing and particularly speaking) so as to be able to operate to a satisfactory level in China.
• To extend technological knowledge and understanding of Chinese industry in its historic and socio-political environment.
• To encourage the handling of authentic materials in Chinese in any particular format.

FORMAT

To achieve this, the tasks will be anchored on four principles:

• task based - to reflect the realities of current language use.
• skill integration - to operate efficiently in real life.
• language integration - to achieve the greatest degree of realism and authenticity.
• cultural awareness - to operate successfully in a linguistic and social sense.

Weekly: 4 hours contact teaching + 4 hours supported self-study + 12 hours untimetabled / research.

Group teaching, group work, pair work and individual work will be employed.

The projects will be run from the Language Unit to enable full use of the resources therein.

Assessment will be based on current and technical language (70%) and engineering (30%) content.

ACTIVITIES

• listening: understanding spoken discourse of a technical nature, without prior preparation, and summarising effectively in spoken or written form.
• speaking: initiating technical discussions or responding to them fluently and accurately.
• reading: reading, understanding, interpreting, extracting data from technical sources.
• writing:writing text using the appropriate structure, vocabulary and registers.

ASSESSMENT

Format: Submission Date - Marks

Interim reports : Friday 24 May 2013 - 20 marks

Final report: 4pm Friday 7 June 2013 - 60 marks

PRIZES

Shell Language Project Prizes are to be shared by the best students undertaking a Foreign Language Project, one of which will be for Chinese.

FURTHER INFORMATION

A talk on Foreign Language Projects will be given on Tuesday 29 January from 1-2pm in the Language Unit seminar room.

Last updated: December 2012