Chinese in Focus
Now I'm really learning Chinese !
Chinese in Focus Overview
Chinese in Focus is a series of Chinese learning materials designed for middle and high school students. Its unique feature—a story line weaving Chinese language and cultural knowledge into one—makes teaching and learning Chinese stimulating. It is composed by four levels.
Level 1 TRAVELING IN CHINA 走遍中国
Traveling in China is Level One in our series of four. It is composed of a Student’s Book, a Workbook, a Teacher’s Manual, a set of Flash Cards and an Animation.
The Student’s Book weaves culture, grammar and vocabulary into an interesting story line: Mark is an American teenager who learns Chinese while traveling in China with Chang’e and Wu Gang, two characters from Chinese mythology. Accompanying Mark in his adventures, students will learn vocabulary in a unique way, using pictures, allowing the students to easily remember it. About 50 common sentence patterns are taught and can be reinforced with the Workbook either during class or at home. Activities are designed to develop the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing). The Flash Cards will help students learn and practice vocabulary and grammar throughout the course.
A unique feature of Traveling in China is the Animation: an amazing presentation that intertwines grammar, culture and vocabulary into the story line.
Our Teacher’s Manual provides the teacher with explanations, class activity suggestions, and the whole set of lesson quizzes, unit tests and mid-term and final exams ready to print and copy.
Added to all this, our website supports both students and teachers with extra materials, ideas, activities, a blog where students can interact with Mark —our main character— and much more.
Level 2 LIVING IN CHINA 住在中国
In the Level Two in our series, Mark is Living in China. There he learns about daily life in modern China as he studies Chinese. The vocabulary is taught by breaking down words into characters and characters into components, helping your students remember the characters and their meanings for good. In order to teach and practice the new vocabulary, we have the highly effective tool of the Flash Cards, organized by unit and by lesson. Students learn and practice the most common words and structures by using the Student’s Book and Workbook together.
As in Level One, our Level Two Living in China Teacher’s Manual contains class activity suggestions for every unit, quizzes and assessments for every lesson, as well as mid-term and final exams—all ready to print and copy—and in-depth cultural information about all topics treated during the course.
You can also find specific online support for level 2 in our website.
Level 3 AMAZING CHINA 神奇中国
Amazing China is Level Three in of our series. In this level, Mark, having returned to the USA, travels back to China through the vase Chang’e gave him. In each chapter he will visit a different place and time in China, making Chinese culture the amazing background for language learning. Like the previous levels, Amazing China intertwines Mark’s story with the learning of vocabulary and sentence structure.
Since the language level of the students has reached a point where they feel comfortable using Chinese, we use very little English and even the cultural notes are approached mostly in Chinese. Since Mark’s story revolves around culture, and since our students can start dealing with the Chinese language by themselves, we decided to let students go deeper into the culture of Amazing China with interesting activities where they will have the chance to make discoveries and learn new things on their own.
As in the previous levels, Amazing China includes a Workbook for extra practice either in class or at home; a Teacher’s Manual with suggestions, extra information and all the needed assessments, quizzes and exams; and the Flash Cards with all the new words for every lesson and unit.
Don’t forget that you can get extra support online for level 3.
Level 4 TODAY'S CHINA 今日中国
Today’s China is Level Four in our series. Since our students are already at an intermediate level of Chinese, we try to avoid the use of English as much as possible. In this Level Four, Mark is again back in the USA and is invited to talk about his own experience in the Confucius Institute. In every unit, he tells us about how China is progressing nowadays and about the challenges it faces. The topics were carefully chosen according to the age and interests of our students. Therefore, it will be easier to involve them in discussions and have them go deeper into learning about the living and lively Chinese culture of today.
Continuing with our methodology, we combine the usage of the Student’s Book with the Workbook—either for class activities or for homework—as well as the Flash Cards of all the new vocabulary broken down into characters and components for easier learning. Our Teacher’s Manual continues to give you great ideas for teaching each unit and enriching your student’s cultural learning, while providing you with the whole set of quizzes, tests and exams, all ready to print and copy.
As usual, teachers and students can find extra support and activities for Level Four on our website.
