Big Ideas
Big Ideas
Language learning is a lifelong process.
Sharing our feelings, opinions, and beliefs in a new language contributes to our identity.
With increased language proficiency, we can discuss and justify opinions with nuance and clarity.
Exploring diverse forms of cultural expression
representing the experience of the people from whose culture they are drawn; for example, celebrations, customs, folklore, language use, traditions, and creative works (e.g., books, paintings, pictures, sculpture, theatre, dance, poetry and prose, filmmaking, musical composition, architecture)
promotes a greater understanding and appreciation of cultures worldwide.
Becoming more proficient in a new language enables us to explore global issues.
Content
Learning Standards
Content
Chinese characters, meaning, and structure
including sounds, meaning, parts, and radicals
Increasingly complex vocabulary, sentence structures, and expressions including:
- complex questions
- sequence of eventsusing expressions such as 先, 之后, 结果, 后来in stories
- needse.g., 我需要……。请让……。and emotions
- support and defence of opinions
multiple forms of past, present, and future time frames
e.g., using 过 to indicate past experiences (e.g., 我没吃过饺子。)
language formality and etiquette
elements of formal and informal speech and writing, such as the distinguishing features of major dialects and other accents, idiomatic expressions, and local slang vocabulary
First Peoples perspectives connecting language and culture, including oral histories
e.g., conversations with an Elder about celebrations, traditions, and protocols
, identity Identity is influenced by, for example, traditions, protocols, celebrations, and festivals.
, and place A sense of place can be influenced by, for example, territory, food, clothing, and creative works.
Chinese works of art
as expressed through creative works (e.g., books, dance, paintings, pictures, poems, songs), historical origins of words and expressions
Chinese-related resources and services
e.g., blogs, community centres, publications
ethics of cultural appropriation
use of a cultural motif, theme, “voice,” image, knowledge, story, song, or drama, shared without permission or without appropriate context or in a way that may misrepresent the real experience of the people from whose culture it is drawn
and plagiarism
Curricular Competency
Learning Standards
Curricular Competency
Thinking and communicating
Locate
Search for various types of Chinese texts.
and explore a variety of texts “Text” is a generic term referring to all forms of oral, written, visual, and digital communications. Oral, written, and visual elements can also be combined (e.g., in dramatic presentations, graphic novels, films, web pages, advertisements).
in Mandarin
Respond personally
e.g., provide personal interpretations and/or opinions
to a variety of texts
Analyze and compare elements of creative works from diverse communities
Recognize how choice of words affects meaning
Use various strategies
For example:
to increase understanding and produce oral and written language
- negotiate meaning by rephrasing questions, and using other techniques for clarification
- summarize information in oral, visual, and written forms
- use dictionaries and other reference materials for clarity of comprehension and expression
Narrate stories
- Use expressions of time and transitional words to show logical progression.
- Use multiple time frames.
Stories are a narrative form of text that can be oral, written, or visual. Stories are derived from truth or fiction and may be used to seek and impart knowledge, entertain, share history, and strengthen a sense of identity.
, both orally and in writing
Exchange ideas
with peers, teachers, and members of the wider community; can include virtual/online conversations
and information, both orally and in writing
Express themselves effectively, with fluency and accuracy
e.g., using the full range of tenses and moods, developing flow, employing precise vocabulary, using appropriate structures
, both orally and in writing
Share information using the presentation format
e.g., digital, visual, verbal; aids such as charts, graphics, illustrations, music, photographs, videos, props, digital media
best suited to their own and others' diverse abilities
Personal and social awareness
Recognize the regional and ethnic diversity of language and culture in China and in Chinese communities throughout the world
Engage in experiences
e.g., blogs,school visits (including virtual/online visits), concerts, exchanges, festivals, films, letters, plays, social media, stores and restaurants with service in Mandarin
with Mandarin-speaking people and Chinese communities
Identify and explore opportunities to continue language acquisition beyond graduation
Identify and explore educational and personal/professional opportunities
e.g., academic research, translation, international affairs, government, teaching, travel, study abroad
requiring proficiency in Mandarin
Analyze personal, shared, and others’ experiences, perspectives, and worldviews through a cultural lens
e.g., values, practices, traditions, perceptions
Recognize First Peoples perspectives and knowledge; other ways of knowing
e.g., First Nations, Métis and Inuit; and/or gender-related, subject/discipline-specific, cultural, embodied, intuitive
, and local cultural knowledge