A teacher stands in front of a screen with Chinese characters and a grammar lesson.

Placement in a specific level is determined by language proficiency. All students, except for complete beginners, take a language assessment prior to the start of the program. The language assessment is not part of the application process.

Explore our course catalog to see the courses offered in past years and learn about our curriculum and schedule.

Level 1: Beginning Chinese

CHNS 3101-3102-3103-3104

This level is designed to help students develop functional language ability in spoken and written Mandarin Chinese in order to meet the basic needs in their personal and academic lives requiring the use of Chinese. Students in Level 1 learn to create with sentence level language, ask and answer questions, and handle simple everyday life situations.

Activities designed for the course include intensive drills on sounds and tones, vocabulary, grammatical constructions, and traditional and simplified characters in meaningful contexts. There is extensive practice in using Chinese in culturally authentic situations. Both pedagogically prepared texts and authentic materials including a wide variety of realia will be used in this course.

Required Texts

Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 1: Textbook, Workbook, Character Workbook, Cheng & Tsui Company; most current edition

Integrated Chinese Level 1 Part 2: Textbook, Workbook, Character Workbook, Cheng & Tsui Company; most current edition

Recommended Dictionary

Concise English-Chinese Chinese-English Dictionary, New Haven: Commercial Press

Level 2: Intermediate Chinese

CHNS 3201-3202-3203-3204

This level is designed for students who have successfully completed a rigorous one-year college course in spoken and written Mandarin Chinese, or its equivalent. While many of the linguistic tasks students will learn to handle are similar to those of Level I, the level of language required to carry out these tasks is more advanced. In this course, taught entirely in Mandarin Chinese, students will be required to comprehend and produce paragraph-level Chinese. Rigorous practice of spoken and written Chinese in complex communicative activities will be complemented by intensive drills to fine-tune pronunciation, expand vocabulary, and internalize more complex grammatical constructions. Students will also do intensive reading of expository writings on a variety of cultural topics.

Required Texts

Electronic course materials only will be available upon arrival.

Recommended Dictionaries

Deng, G., Ed., A New English-Chinese Dictionary, University of Washington Press

Deng, G., Ed., A New Chinese-English Dictionary, University of Washington Press

Level 2.5: Pre-Advanced Chinese

CHNS 3298-3299-3301-3302

Conducted entirely in Mandarin Chinese, this level is designed for students who have completed Intermediate Chinese or the equivalent. While many of the linguistic tasks students learn to handle are similar to those of Intermediate Chinese, the level of language required to carry out these tasks is more advanced. Students are introduced to the written Chinese (shumianyu) and taught how to make the transition from reading pedagogically prepared materials to more authentic materials. Rigorous practice of spoken and written Chinese in complex communicative activities will be complemented by intensive practice sessions to fine-tune pronunciation, expand vocabulary, and internalize more complex grammatical constructions. Students will also do intensive reading of expository writings on a variety of cultural topics.

Required Text

Chou, C.P., A New China, Princeton University Press, 2011

Recommended Dictionaries

Deng, G., Ed., A New English-Chinese Dictionary, University of Washington Press

Deng, G., Ed., A New Chinese-English Dictionary, University of Washington Press

Level 3: Advanced Chinese I

CHNS 3303-3304-3305-3306

Designed for students who have completed two years of college-level training in Chinese, this level is conducted in Mandarin Chinese and aims to help students solidify their ability to comprehend and produce paragraph-level Chinese. Instructors strive to enable students to understand face-to-face conversations on familiar topics, communicate factual information, read materials written in formal shumianyu Chinese, and write simple essays, reports, and all types of correspondence. Students will work with authentic materials, including newspaper and radio.

Required Texts

Bai Jianhua, Beyond Basics, Cheng & Tsui Company

Shou-shin Teng, Lo Sun Perry, Taiwan Today, Cheng & Tsui Company

Recommended Dictionaries

Deng, G., Ed., A New English-Chinese Dictionary, University of Washington Press

Deng, G., Ed., A New Chinese-English Dictionary, University of Washington Press

Level 4: Advanced Chinese II

CHNS 3401-3402-3403-3404

This level is designed to help students comprehend and produce discourse-level Chinese characterized by factual, as well as abstract, elaboration on most familiar and some unfamiliar topics. Authentic materials are used exclusively and the course is conducted in Mandarin Chinese. It is designed for students who have completed three years of training in all four language skills: reading, writing, speaking, and listening. In this fully immersive course, students will read rigorously both literary and non-literary texts written in advanced shumianyu language on a wide range of topic areas related to current events, social sciences, history and literature. Students will be required to write extensively in the expository style, and their written work will be corrected and discussed in individual sessions.

Required Texts

Electronic course materials only will be available upon arrival.

Recommended Dictionaries

Deng, G., Ed., A New English-Chinese Dictionary, University of Washington Press

Deng, G., Ed., A New Chinese-English Dictionary, University of Washington Press