Year 7 SyllabusTest
Year 7 Syllabus
Year Level Description
Students begin their study of Chinese in secondary school with little to no prior experience of the Chinese language and culture. Many will have learnt an additional language in primary school and bring existing language learning strategies, textual knowledge and intercultural awareness to the new experience of learning Chinese. Skills in analysing, comparing and reflecting on language and culture in the languages are mutually supportive. Students may need encouragement to take risks in learning a new language at this stage in their social development and to consider issues of how the experience influences their first language and culture.
In Year 7, students communicate in Chinese, interacting with peers and known adults to exchange information about self, family and friends. They engage in individual and collaborative tasks that involve planning, deciding and responding, or work together to highlight their language learning for family, friends and their school community. Students identify topic, gist and specific points of information from texts related to aspects of their personal and social worlds, convey the information and ideas and use them in new ways. They respond to imaginative texts by discussing aspects, such as characters, events and/or key ideas. Students create simple own or shared imaginative texts by reinterpreting or adapting familiar texts and/or using modelled structures and language.
Students become familiar with the systems of the Chinese language when encountered in simple spoken and written texts. They use features of the Chinese sound system to discriminate use of tones, rhythm and sound flow in interactions, and use Pinyin to support learning the spoken language. Students become familiar with the Chinese writing system, focusing on the structure and basic components that feature in characters. They generate language for a range of purposes in spoken and written texts by recognising and using context-related vocabulary and elements of the Chinese grammatical system, including the placement of time phrases, and begin to use conjunctions, negative words and particles. They build a metalanguage in Chinese to talk about vocabulary and grammar concepts. Students reflect on their and others’ responses to interactions and intercultural experiences, and use these reflections to improve intercultural communication.
In Year 7, students learn Chinese through rich and varied language input, and the provision of experiences that are challenging, but achievable. English is predominantly used for discussion, clarification, explanation, analysis and reflection. To assist students in the language learning process, support is provided from the classroom teacher in the form of scaffolding, modelling and monitoring, explicit instruction and feedback, structured opportunities for understanding and practising new language, and the chance to revisit, recycle and review.
Communicating
Socialising
Interact with peers and known adults orally and in writing (Pinyin and characters) to exchange information about self and family and friends, for example, 同学们好。; 我叫兰兰。你叫什么名字？; 我十二岁。;
我的生日是一月一日。;
你哥哥多大？; 我上七年级。; 我爸爸是澳大利亚人。; 我妈妈是中国人。; 你家有几个/口人？
我家有四个/口人，我有爸爸、妈妈和哥哥。; 我妈妈是老师。我爸爸是医生。; 我有一只狗和两只猫。
Engage in individual and collaborative tasks that involve planning, deciding and responding, or working together to create displays, presentations or performances to showcase their language learning for family, friends or school community
Participate in classroom routines and interactions by responding to teacher talk, following instructions, asking and answering questions, requesting assistance or permission, asking others how they are and offering wishes, for example, 听。; 老师。; 谢谢。; 对不起。; 它是什么？; 它是……;
它们是……; 你好吗？ 很好，你呢？;
陈先生，你好吗？; 明天见。;再见。; 生日快乐。;
不用谢， 不客气。; 对不起。; 没关系。
Informing
Identify topic, gist and specific points of information from a range of spoken and written texts related to aspects of their personal and social worlds, and use the information in new ways
Convey information and ideas from a range of texts related to aspects of their personal and social worlds, using different modes of presentation
Creating
Respond to imaginative texts by describing aspects, such as characters, events and/or key ideas
Create simple own or shared imaginative texts by reinterpreting or adapting familiar texts and/or using modelled structures and language
Translating
Translate and interpret phrases and short texts from Chinese to English and vice versa, noticing which words or phrases translate easily and which do not
Reflecting
Reflect on own and others’ responses to interactions and intercultural experiences, and use these reflections to improve intercultural communication
Reflect on experiences of learning and using another language, and share aspects of own identity, such as age, interests and family background, reflecting on how these impact on intercultural communication
Understanding
Systems of language
Recognise the tone-syllable nature of the spoken language, discriminate use of tones, rhythm and sound flow in interactions, and use Pinyin to support learning the spoken language
Become familiar with the Chinese writing system, looking at how characters evolved, their structure and basic components that feature in many characters
Use knowledge of basic components to predict the meaning of related characters, for example, 火, 人, 山, 木, 口, 日, 月
Recognise some common radicals, for example, 口, 女, 人
Generate language for a range of purposes in simple spoken and written texts, by recognising and using
context-related vocabulary and elements of the Chinese grammatical system, including:
- recognising and using simple verbs, including
是, 有, 姓, 叫, 喜欢 - identifying the placement of time phrases; the use of conjunctions (for example, 和 to add information); and the role of measure words, for example, 个, 只, 口
- recognising and beginning to use negative words, including 没, 不
- beginning to use 也 and 和 to connect and sequence information
- using the possessive word 的 with pronouns to make a possessive
- developing knowledge and using numbers 1–100
- using 吗 to change a statement to a question
- recognising and beginning to use particles, such as 呢, for example, 你呢？
- using demonstrative pronouns 这, 那, for example, 这是我的哥哥。; 那是一只狗。
- recognising and using the question word 谁, for example, 他是谁？
Build metalanguage to talk about vocabulary and grammar concepts
Identify and use text structures and language features of common spoken, written and multimodal texts, and compare with structures and features of similar texts in English
Language variation and change
Examine linguistic features in texts to develop an understanding that languages vary according to elements, such as register
Understand that Chinese, like all languages, varies according to participants, roles and relationships, situations and cultures
Recognise that Chinese is an important Asian and global language and that Chinese, like other languages, has evolved and developed through different periods of influence and change
Role of language and culture
Explore the relationship between language and culture
Achievement Standard
At standard, students use familiar language when participating in spoken and written interactions to exchange information about self, family and friends, and in classroom tasks and routines. They identify and use some information, including topic, gist and some specific points of information, in simple Chinese texts. Students convey, and present in different ways, using learnt words, phrases and characters related to their personal and social world, simple information and ideas from texts. They describe aspects of Chinese imaginative texts, and use familiar and modelled language to create simple texts adapted from familiar imaginative texts. Students translate, with a satisfactory level of accuracy, some familiar words and phrases. They reflect on aspects of language, culture, personal identity and experiences of learning a language, and how these may impact on intercultural communication.
Students become familiar with the systems of Chinese, identifying and experimenting with Chinese tones, the sounds of Pinyin and character components. They recognise and apply some of the features of the Chinese sound system, with a satisfactory level of accuracy, when listening to, and speaking, Chinese. Students recognise and reproduce key Chinese characters and some elements of grammar in simple texts with a satisfactory level of accuracy. They use familiar grammatical terms to talk about how language works. Students use some features and structures associated with familiar Chinese texts and make comparisons between similar texts in Chinese and English. They identify examples of the relationship between language and culture, and the place of Chinese in the local, national and global context.
Year Level Description
Students begin their study of Chinese in secondary school with little to no prior experience of the Chinese language and culture. Many will have learnt an additional language in primary school and bring existing language learning strategies, textual knowledge and intercultural awareness to the new experience of learning Chinese. Skills in analysing, comparing and reflecting on language and culture in the languages are mutually supportive. Students may need encouragement to take risks in learning a new language at this stage in their social development and to consider issues of how the experience influences their first language and culture.
In Year 7, students communicate in Chinese, interacting with peers and known adults to exchange information about self, family and friends. They engage in individual and collaborative tasks that involve planning, deciding and responding, or work together to highlight their language learning for family, friends and their school community. Students identify topic, gist and specific points of information from texts related to aspects of their personal and social worlds, convey the information and ideas and use them in new ways. They respond to imaginative texts by discussing aspects, such as characters, events and/or key ideas. Students create simple own or shared imaginative texts by reinterpreting or adapting familiar texts and/or using modelled structures and language.
Students become familiar with the systems of the Chinese language when encountered in simple spoken and written texts. They use features of the Chinese sound system to discriminate use of tones, rhythm and sound flow in interactions, and use Pinyin to support learning the spoken language. Students become familiar with the Chinese writing system, focusing on the structure and basic components that feature in characters. They generate language for a range of purposes in spoken and written texts by recognising and using context-related vocabulary and elements of the Chinese grammatical system, including the placement of time phrases, and begin to use conjunctions, negative words and particles. They build a metalanguage in Chinese to talk about vocabulary and grammar concepts. Students reflect on their and others’ responses to interactions and intercultural experiences, and use these reflections to improve intercultural communication.
In Year 7, students learn Chinese through rich and varied language input, and the provision of experiences that are challenging, but achievable. English is predominantly used for discussion, clarification, explanation, analysis and reflection. To assist students in the language learning process, support is provided from the classroom teacher in the form of scaffolding, modelling and monitoring, explicit instruction and feedback, structured opportunities for understanding and practising new language, and the chance to revisit, recycle and review.