Working with Spoken Chinese

by Hongyin Tao, UCLA

A Companion Website to the Textbook

This site accompanies the textbook “Working with Spoken Chinese.” For each of the ten units of the textbook, the site provides an audio clip, three forms of transcripts (without annotations, with Pinyin, with selected line-by-line commentaries), a vocabulary list, and concordances.

Users of this site need to be aware that the site contains copyrighted materials. Individuals who provided the spoken data have given their consent that their data may only be used for the development of learning materials for “Working with Spoken Chinese.”

Copyright: The Companion Website is intended for personal use or your use as a teacher with your students and in support of language learning. None of the materials on this site may be reproduced, displayed, modified, or distributed without the express prior written permission of the publisher. You may not create derivative works from, transfer, or sell any information obtained from this site. Printing materials or any portions thereof is solely permitted for educational, non-commercial use.

Publisher: CALPER Publications, Center for Advanced Language Proficiency Education and Research, The Pennsylvania State University, 305 Sparks Building, University Park, PA, USA. calper@psu.edu.

Unit Overview

Unit 1: Travel Adventures 旅行奇遇

Storytelling, Elements of a Story (Who, When, Where, etc.), Addressee Behaviors in Story Sessions

Unit 2: Fashion Fever 流行装

Comments on Fashion Styles, Expressing Agreement/Disagreement, Approval/Disapproval, Support Arguments with Examples

Unit 3: Global Citizen 地球公民

Discussing Attitude toward International Experience, Contrasting Information, Elaborating Information, Supporting Ideas with Examples

Unit 4: Who Wants to be a Millionaire 百万富翁

Talk about a TV Game Show, Compare Similar and Unlike Things, Degrees and Qualities, Qualifying an Opinion, Vague Expressions

Unit 5: Insurance Abuse 滥用医疗保险

Commenting on Insurance-Related Social Phenomena, Making Negative Statements, Vague References and Negative Events, Demonstratives and Degree Expressions

Unit 6 Las Vegas 拉斯韦加斯

Reflecting on a Tourist Destination, Admiration of Places, Contrasting Features of Places, Expressions for Praising, Listener Behavior in Praising

Unit 7 Tough Job Market 就业问题

Discussing Job Opportunities, Presenting Multiple Reasons/Perspectives, Expressing Past, Present, and Future Temporal Frames of Events

Unit 8 People and Personalities 表情与性格

Commenting on People’s Appearances and Qualities, Opinions with Different Degrees of Certainty, Personal Interest, Emotional State, Listener Reactions to Comments

Unit 9 Driving Cautiously 小心开车

Reflecting on Driving Experiences, Different Accounts of Shared Experience, Humor, Alluding to Cultural Concepts

Unit 10 Horror Movies 恐怖片

Describing a Movie, Types of Movies, Personal Taste about Movies, Liking and Disliking, Listener Corroborating with the Other Speaker

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The contents of the publication and the website were developed under a grant from the U.S. Department of Education (CFDA 84.229A, P229A060003). However, the contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and one should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government.