Work samples

Languages: Chinese

Years 9 and 10 (F-10 sequence)

Satisfactory

Interview: Mobile phones at the table

Summary of task

The interview took place at the end of a unit on eating etiquette in China. Students discussed (in English and Chinese) the cultural practices related to sharing a meal with family and friends in China and the similarities and differences between Australia and China. The unit also incorporated learning appropriate vocabulary, expressions, grammar and idioms related to the theme of the unit. 

Students were then given a visual stimulus text of a group of people who were sitting at a table laden with food and who were all engaged with their mobile phones rather than with each other or the food. Students were asked to write a written response to the stimulus text describing the picture, referring to cultural practices, personal experiences and points of view about mobile phones at the table. Following the written response there was an oral component to the task. 

Students were asked to respond to a series of unprepared oral questions relating to the visual text given for the written response above. They were expected to answer questions on their ideas and points of view on the use of mobile phones at the table whilst dining with friends and/or families. This task was conducted as an interview. Students were expected to respond to the questions asked. Students could refer to their written response but not read the text. Students were expected to manipulate the language to respond appropriately to the question asked.

Achievement standard

By the end of Year 10, students use spoken and written Chinese to sustain extended interactions with familiar and unfamiliar participants in a range of contexts (for example, interacting with Chinese-speaking students online; using Chinese to ask about items in a local Chinese grocery). Students use pinyin to transcribe spoken texts and use characters to create written texts. They identify key ideas and compare information from multiple sources (such as 新闻，访谈，podcast, 纪录片) to develop and substantiate their own position on topics of personal interest or issues of broader significance. They exchange ideas and opinions, for example, 为什么学中文很重要？； 澳大利亚的语言；好用的手机app, 我不太同意你的说法，因为…你觉得呢？； 虽然你说得有道理，但是… 所以我觉得… They speak with attention to pronunciation and tone. Students respond to and create a range of short informative and imaginative texts for a variety of audiences and purposes, for example, 什么是最健康的食物？ 如果我…的话. They use a range of sentence structures and grammatical features to develop cohesion and coherence in these texts, including prepositional phrases to describe participants (for example, 我和 / 跟妈妈去买东西), and adverbs to express time, tense and frequency of events, for example, 总是，还没有. They use conjunctions (for example, 虽然如此…，尽管这样…但是…) and apply a range of stylistic devices such as rhetorical questions, quotes and 成语. They translate texts and produce bilingual texts, recognising that not all concepts can be readily translated Chinese and English. They engage with a range of imaginative texts, for example, 娱乐节目-小品，合唱，音乐录影，流行歌曲比赛，电视片，电影.

Students recognise how writers and speakers, including themselves, make deliberate choices when using language features and text structures. They recognise that language is dynamic and is influenced by time, place, setting, participants and contexts. When interacting with a range of texts they identify how audience and purpose shape their own and others’ language choices and interpretation of these texts. They explain how features of Chinese culture and language shape their own and others’ communication practices. Students reflect on how their own cultural experience impacts on interactions with Chinese speakers.