Year 8 SyllabusTest
Year 8 Syllabus
Year Level Description
Year 8 Chinese: Second Language builds on the skills, knowledge and understanding required of students to communicate in Chinese developed in Year 7 and focuses on extending their oral and written communication skills and their understandings of the Chinese language and culture. Students may need encouragement to take risks in learning a language at this stage in their social development and to consider issues of how the experience impacts on the norms associated with their first language and culture.
Students communicate in Chinese, maintaining interactions with peers and known adults to exchange information and discuss aspects of personal information, home life, daily routine, likes and dislikes, school life, interests and leisure activities. They engage in individual and collaborative tasks that involve making arrangements, or organising events or outings. Students identify key information and supporting details from texts related to aspects of their personal and social worlds, and use the information in new ways. They convey information and ideas from texts, using different modes of presentation to suit audience and context. Students respond to imaginative texts, describing and discussing aspects, such as characters, events and/or ideas. They create imaginative texts by experimenting with different modes and formats, and creating moods and effects suitable for different audiences.
Students become more familiar with the systems of the Chinese language when encountered in simple spoken and written texts. They use features of the Chinese sound system, including homonyms and syllables with different tones, and Pinyin to record the sound of phrases or sentences with greater accuracy. Students interpret written texts by inferring meaning from common character components or position of components, and analyse how reliable this method is in translating and writing. They generate language for a range of purposes in spoken and written texts by using context-related vocabulary and applying elements of the Chinese grammatical system, including adjectival and modal verbs, familiar verbs for daily routines, adverbs and time phrases. They continue to build a metalanguage in Chinese to talk about vocabulary and grammar concepts. Students engage with Chinese speakers and texts, reflecting on how interaction involves culture as well as language.
In Year 8, students are widening their social networks, experiences and communication repertoires in Chinese. The practice of reviewing and consolidating prior learning is balanced against the provision of engaging and relevant new experiences and connections. Students are supported to develop increasing autonomy as language learners and users, to self-monitor and peer-monitor, and to adjust language in response to their experiences in different contexts.
Communicating
Socialising
Maintain interactions with peers and known adults orally and in writing (Pinyin and characters) to exchange information and discuss aspects of personal information, home life, daily routine, likes and dislikes, school life, interests and leisure activities, for example, 我有绿色的眼睛。; 棕色的头发。;
我早上七点起床。; 我和家人晚上六点半吃饭。;
你最喜欢什么运动？ 我最喜欢游泳。我最不喜欢踢足球。;
我爸爸喜欢吃古老肉。我妈妈不喜欢吃炒饭。; 我想吃汉堡包。
Engage in individual and collaborative tasks that involve making arrangements, inviting, planning, deciding and responding, for example, making arrangements for an outing with a friend, an excursion to a Chinese restaurant or organising a class event
Participate in classroom routines and interactions by asking and answering questions, requesting information, expressing feelings, opinions and personal preferences and responding to others’ contributions, for example, 他是我弟弟，他人很好。;我可以开始吗？; 我可以上厕所吗？; 我可以去喝水吗？我不明白。; 请回答。
Informing
Identify key information and supporting details 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 that take account of context and audience
Creating
Respond to imaginative texts by describing and discussing aspects, such as characters, events and/or ideas
Create own or shared imaginative texts by experimenting with different modes and formats, and creating moods and effects suitable for different audiences
Translating
Translate and interpret short texts from Chinese to English and vice versa, comparing different versions of a text and suggesting reasons for differences and mistranslations
Reflecting
Engage with Chinese speakers and texts, reflecting on how interaction involves culture as well as language
Reflect on own identity, including identity as a learner and user of Chinese, through experiences or in attitudes to culture and intercultural communication
Understanding
Systems of language
Recognise and discriminate between homonyms in Chinese, for example, shì 是 and 室, relying on contextual cues to assist understanding and differentiating syllables with different tones, for example, shì是 and shí十, and use Pinyin to record the sound of phrases or sentences with greater accuracy
Interpret written texts by inferring meaning from common character components or position of components and analyse how reliable this method is in translating and writing
Generate language for a range of purposes in simple spoken and written texts, by using context-related vocabulary and applying elements of the Chinese grammatical system, including:
- beginning to recognise verb types found in Chinese, for example, adjectival verbs (高, 大) and modal verbs (会, 可以)
- beginning to use adverbs, for example, 都 to indicate inclusion and 就 to indicate sequence
- applying the placement of time and place phrases; the use of conjunctions (for example, 和 to add information); 还是/或者 to offer or indicate choices; and the role of measure words, for example, 个, 只
- exploring the clauses of a sentence in Chinese and noticing how they are linked coherently, for example, 他叫王晓明, (他) 是我的朋友 (zero subject/pronoun)
- using familiar verbs for daily routine, such as 起床, 去睡觉, 吃, 去上学, 玩, 学习, 听音乐, 读书／看书, 看电视
- applying processes of discourse development by joining, contrasting and sequencing using 也, 和
- exploring the concept of ‘tense’ across languages
- recognising and usingsuggestion word 吧
- using time phrases/expressions, such as 上午, 下午, 三点, 现在, 半, 刻, 分
- beginning to use 跟 as a preposition
Continue to build metalanguage to talk about vocabulary and grammar concepts
Identify, analyse and use text structures and language features of common spoken, written and multimodal texts, and explain how different types of texts are structured and use particular language features to suit different contexts, purposes and audiences
Language variation and change
Examine linguistic features in texts to understand that Chinese, like all languages, varies according to participants, roles and relationships, situations and cultures
Understand the dynamic nature of Chinese, and how it influences and is influenced by other languages and cultures
Role of language and culture
Explore the relationship between language and significant cultural values or practices in Chinese, English and other languages
Achievement Standard
At standard, students use mostly familiar language when participating in spoken and written interactions to exchange information in Chinese about their personal, home, and school life, and in classroom tasks and routines. They identify and use most key information and some supporting ideas and detail in Chinese texts related to aspects of their personal and social worlds, and convey these in a variety of ways. They describe aspects of Chinese imaginative texts and use modelled language to adapt and create simple imaginative texts. Students translate short texts with a satisfactory level of accuracy, identifying some variations across different translations of a text. They reflect on aspects of language, culture, personal identity and experiences of learning a language, and how these may influence communication.
Students apply some features of the Chinese sound system, including tones, and writing system with a satisfactory level of accuracy. They use Pinyin to support the understanding of spoken oral text, and use the understanding of common character components to infer meaning from written text. Students use familiar vocabulary and expressions about personal, home, and school life with a satisfactory level of accuracy. They use elements of grammar and some features of the writing system, including basic punctuation, with a satisfactory level of accuracy, to write short texts in Chinese. Students use some metalanguage when discussing aspects of language learning. They use most structures and some language features associated with familiar text types. They identify some features of Chinese that may need to be adjusted to suit different situations and relationships, and examples of how languages change and are influenced by each other.
Year Level Description
Year 8 Chinese: Second Language builds on the skills, knowledge and understanding required of students to communicate in Chinese developed in Year 7 and focuses on extending their oral and written communication skills and their understandings of the Chinese language and culture. Students may need encouragement to take risks in learning a language at this stage in their social development and to consider issues of how the experience impacts on the norms associated with their first language and culture.
Students communicate in Chinese, maintaining interactions with peers and known adults to exchange information and discuss aspects of personal information, home life, daily routine, likes and dislikes, school life, interests and leisure activities. They engage in individual and collaborative tasks that involve making arrangements, or organising events or outings. Students identify key information and supporting details from texts related to aspects of their personal and social worlds, and use the information in new ways. They convey information and ideas from texts, using different modes of presentation to suit audience and context. Students respond to imaginative texts, describing and discussing aspects, such as characters, events and/or ideas. They create imaginative texts by experimenting with different modes and formats, and creating moods and effects suitable for different audiences.
Students become more familiar with the systems of the Chinese language when encountered in simple spoken and written texts. They use features of the Chinese sound system, including homonyms and syllables with different tones, and Pinyin to record the sound of phrases or sentences with greater accuracy. Students interpret written texts by inferring meaning from common character components or position of components, and analyse how reliable this method is in translating and writing. They generate language for a range of purposes in spoken and written texts by using context-related vocabulary and applying elements of the Chinese grammatical system, including adjectival and modal verbs, familiar verbs for daily routines, adverbs and time phrases. They continue to build a metalanguage in Chinese to talk about vocabulary and grammar concepts. Students engage with Chinese speakers and texts, reflecting on how interaction involves culture as well as language.
In Year 8, students are widening their social networks, experiences and communication repertoires in Chinese. The practice of reviewing and consolidating prior learning is balanced against the provision of engaging and relevant new experiences and connections. Students are supported to develop increasing autonomy as language learners and users, to self-monitor and peer-monitor, and to adjust language in response to their experiences in different contexts.