Upper School Curriculum

Grades: 9, 10, 11, 12
Full-Year

PREREQ: Chinese proficiency - Intermediate Low 

The goal of Intermediate Mid Chinese is to progress from the Intermediate Low to the Intermediate Mid level, as specified by ACTFL proficiency guidelines. The classroom experience is grounded in the four communicative skills: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. With guided practice in the interpretive, presentational, and interpersonal modes, paired with a base of more advanced grammar and richer vocabulary, students work toward greater proficiency and more independent learning of Chinese. Intermediate Mid Chinese will continue with the skills developed in Intermediate Low Chinese with an increased focus on developing and refining grammatical functions, idioms, and expressions. Students learn to understand the main idea and some information from authentic texts, participate in spoken and written conversations, and communicate information on familiar topics using increasingly nuanced sentences. Students also learn to compare their cultural practices to those of the Chinese-speaking world and learn to interact appropriately within cultural and social contexts. The class is taught almost exclusively in Mandarin Chinese, and students are expected to use the target language at all times.