Sri Lanka GCE Ordinary Level - Chinese Language

This syllabus, implemented from 2017, aims to equip students with a comprehensive understanding of the Chinese language and culture. It focuses on developing listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills, incorporating activity-based learning and cultural immersion. The syllabus is designed to prepare students for the Chinese Language Proficiency Exam (HSK) Level -3.

Grade 12

• Phonetics & Pronunciation: Students learn the Chinese phonetic alphabet (pinyin), including initials, finals, and tones. They practice pronunciation and spelling rules, and learn basic communicative functions like greetings, thanks, apologies, and farewells.
• Characters and Word Forms: This section introduces Chinese characters, their history, evolution, structure, and stroke order. Students learn to write and identify common nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and numbers (1-10).
• Syntax of Simple Sentences: Students learn basic grammatical components and sentence structure, including subject-verb agreement, negation, and interrogative negative questions. They practice making sentences with different predicates (verbs, adjectives).
• Interrogative Pronouns: Students learn to use determiners, possessive forms, and ask questions with extended answers. They also learn to ask alternative questions and express ideas about work/study places and nationality. They practice asking about time, date, and daily activities, and learn how to address people using professional titles.
• Classifiers, Prepositions, and Adverbs: This section covers Chinese measure words, prepositions, and adverbs, including their usage in sentences and utterances.
• Verbal, Nominal, Adjectival Predicates, and Modal Verbs: Students learn to use different types of predicates and modal verbs to express intention, desire, ability, permission, prohibition, possibility, probability, and necessity. They also practice conversations about buying and selling.
• Reading Comprehension: Students practice reading and understanding prescribed texts, including short and long passages from HSK test papers. They learn to comprehend contextual meaning, identify main ideas and details, summarize, and translate texts. They also explore primary cultural aspects of China.
• Oral Communication: Students practice listening, understanding, and repeating words and sentences with proper tones. They engage in dialogues and role-playing based on daily activities and deliver short speeches related to daily and school life.
• Written Communication and Writing Rules: Students learn Chinese punctuation marks, writing formats for different texts (notes, notices, invitations, greeting cards, business cards), and academic register for composing simple documents. They also practice describing pictures.
• Composition: Students develop creative writing skills and improve their writing ability in Chinese. They practice writing daily journals, essays in various genres, and letters.

Grade 13

• Verb Modification with Particles I: Students learn to use particles to indicate continuous actions and progressive aspect.
• Verb Modification with Particles II and Conjunctions: Students learn to use particles to indicate the realization or completion of an action, change of an action, and conjunctions to form complex sentences.
• Passive Sentences and Comparative Sentences: Students learn to form and use passive and comparative sentences.
• Complements of Time and Action: Students learn to use complements to specify the time and manner of actions.
• Communication: Students practice conversations in various situations (bank, library, restaurant, doctor's office, shopping mall, airport) using frequently used phrases and utterances. They also practice asking and giving directions.
• Chinese Culture and Lifestyle: Students learn about the history of Chinese characters, the geography and climate of China, and Chinese culture and society.
• Comprehension and Translation: Students practice translating Chinese documents and texts into their mother tongue and vice versa.
• Historical Figures of Chinese Literature: Students learn about the history of China, Chinese literature, Confucius and his thoughts, and Chinese myths.
• Chinese Proverbs, Idioms, and Stories: Students practice reading and comprehending Chinese proverbs, idioms, and stories.
• Chinese Writers and Literary Genres: Students learn about Chinese poets, writers, and their works, including poems of the Tang Dynasty and modern Chinese literature. They also learn to evaluate and critique literary works.

School activities and programs are also integrated into the syllabus to enhance cultural understanding and language application.