How to Use These Materials

Basic Mandarin Chinese—Speaking & Listening Practice Book contains extensive drills and exercises for each unit of the textbook Basic Mandarin Chinese—Speaking & Listening. The purpose of this workbook is to offer learners various kinds of practice activities for both in- and out-of-class use, so as to enable learners to reinforce and “activize” their learning of the new vocabulary and grammar introduced in the textbook.

New Vocabulary and Grammar Summaries

The first section of the Practice Book consists of a one-page list of new vocabulary and grammar in each Basic Mandarin Chinese—Speaking & Listening lesson, from Unit 1, Part 1 through Unit 10, Part 4.

The lists are divided into a section on “Vocabulary” and a section on “Grammar.” In the vocabulary section, each new vocabulary item introduced in the corresponding lesson of the textbook is listed in alphabetical order of the Pinyin with English translation and indication of word class (any Additional Vocabulary is not included). In the grammar section, each new grammar pattern introduced in that part of the textbook is listed, also in alphabetical order, in most cases with one or more examples in Pinyin and English translation.

• We believe these lists of new vocabulary and grammar will be useful for all learners for review purposes. However, learners should ideally not learn new vocabulary or grammar from these lists; instead, they should always try to learn new vocabulary and grammar in the context of the Basic Conversations and Build Ups in the textbook.

• Those learners who are using the Practice Book to supplement other textbooks and who do not have access to the textbook for Basic Mandarin Chinese—Speaking & Listening, will want to pay special attention to these lists, since the various drills and exercises in this book assume thorough familiarity with all this material.

The next two sections consist of drills. Don’t underestimate the value of drills as enabling mechanisms that help you, the learner, to attain the ultimate goal of communicative competency. The drills are useful for improving your pronunciation, developing your fluency, and increasing your confidence in speaking Chinese. Although it’s true that some of the drills in this workbook are of necessity fairly mechanical, others are more realistic and communicative, in some cases even incorporating a certain amount of cultural material.

• The drills are best done out of class in self-study mode, either in a language learning laboratory or, working with a computer or your audio player, in some other place of your choosing. If you’re learning Chinese in a classroom setting, doing the drills out of class also frees up valuable time with the instructor so that you can focus on those kinds of interactive learning activities for which the instructor’s guidance and active participation are essential.

• You should work with the recordings on the accompanying as actively as possible, speaking loudly and always thinking of the meaning of what you are hearing and saying.

• If you’re learning Chinese on your own, the drills will be especially important for you and, working with the accompanying , you should try to go through each one several times. In addition, it will be to your benefit to seek out a native-speaking tutor or mentor who can work with you one or two hours a week for additional practice and to answer questions.

Substitution Drills

In the substitution drills, a model sentence is first said for you to repeat. Next, various vocabulary and grammar prompts are given that you’re to substitute into the model sentence, creating a related but new sentence.

In the audio portion, after each prompt a pause is provided for the learner to say the new sentence with that substitution. A native speaker then provides a confirmation of the correct sentence, followed by a pause during which you should repeat the correct sentence. An English translation of each sentence is included in the workbook.

• It’s most effective to do each drill at least twice: the first time with the workbook open and the second time with the workbook closed.

Transformation and Response Drills

As the name implies, these drills involve transforming one phrase or sentence into another, or responding to a question or other cue. There are also a smaller number of politeness drills, translation drills, and drills involving the conversion of Bejing-style speech to non-Beijing-style speech and vice versa.

In the audio portion, instructions for each drill are given in English before the drill. As with the substitution drills, each of the transformation and response drills is followed by a pause for the learner’s response, which is then in turn followed by confirmation of the correct response by a native speaker. A pause then allows you time to repeat the correct sentence. An English translation of each sentence or phrase is included in the workbook.

• Again, it is best to do each drill at least twice—once with the workbook open and once with the workbook closed.

• Though the transformation and response drills are in principle meant to be done by students out of class, some instructors may choose to do some of the drills in class, or some of the drills could be adapted for in-class exercises.

Role Play Exercises

The role play exercises involve conversations between two or more speakers that make use of the new vocabulary, grammar, functions, and situations introduced in the lesson.

There are three to eight role plays for each of the four parts of each unit. In many cases, the role plays are based roughly on the textbook’s Basic Conversation but with some of the details changed. Most of the role plays involve two roles (indicated by A and B), with a few involving three roles (A, B, C).

Here in the workbook, the role plays are rendered in English, but they’re to be performed in Chinese. The role plays are designed to be done as one of the last activities of each lesson.

• While performing the role plays, you may glance at the English but should try to look up as much as possible when saying the Chinese.

• The role plays should be performed at a fairly rapid clip, so you may wish to practice them in advance (making a few notes is fine, but you should not write out complete translations). The goal isn’t laboriously translating word-for-word from English to Chinese but, rather, producing natural Chinese equivalents based on the English cues. The emphasis should be on the performance of the role plays. If you find that you’re hesitant and choppy in performing a role play, this most likely means you haven’t yet attained sufficient mastery of the material.

• If you’re learning Chinese in a class, after individual students have performed a role play, the instructor will probably lead the whole class in repeating the lines of the role play one more time together.

• If you’re learning Chinese on your own, then the role plays will be especially helpful in giving you practice in using the vocabulary and grammar of the lesson in new combinations. By playing all the roles in a role play exercise, you as an independent learner stand to gain extra benefits for your language skills, enhancing your fluency and becoming flexible in swiftly switching perspectives. Of course, if you’re learning with a friend or have access to a native-speaking tutor, then each of you could take one role.

Listening Comprehension Exercises

The listening comprehension exercises involve conversations or monologues which are available on the accompanying only, since it is listening that we want to practice, not reading.¹ There are two listening passages for each lesson, each approximately the same length as the basic conversations, that is, about 6 to 12 lines total. To provide additional practice in listening comprehension, the passages reuse, in new contexts, the new vocabulary (including the Supplementary Vocabulary) and grammar of the current and previous lessons.

Each listening passage is followed by two to four multiple choice questions on the content of the passage. Based on the recorded passages, you should circle the best response—(A), (B), or (C)—to each of the questions that follows.

• While you work on the listening comprehension exercises, feel free to listen to each passage as many times as needed.

• In a classroom setting, the listening comprehension exercises are best done as homework which students hand in the next day for the instructor to correct, grade, and return. After they have been corrected and returned to students, they can be inserted by the student into a binder for future reference.

• Independent learners will also find the listening comprehension exercises helpful for practice in comprehending new combinations of words and grammar patterns; if they have questions, they can ask a tutor or Chinese friend. It may also be useful to obtain the Instructor’s Guide, since along with the scripts for the listening comprehension exercises it also includes the correct answers.

Dictation Exercises

The dictation exercises provide practice in listening to and transcribing in Pinyin romanization the sounds of Mandarin, as well as listening comprehension practice involving the classroom expressions, numbers, ages, money amounts, clock times, amounts of time, and dates (days of the week, days of the month, months, and years).

Dictation exercises are included only for some of the lessons in the textbook. The lesson in the textbook that a given dictation exercise is designed to accompany is indicated.

The dictation exercises provide all learners, independent or class-based alike, with additional practice to reinforce the content of the lesson. If you’re learning Chinese in a classroom setting, your instructor may suggest that you do the dictation exercises as homework to reinforce what’s been covered in class.

• Like the listening comprehension exercises, the dictation exercises are based on audio recordings by native speakers that are available only on the accompanying .² Instructions are given in English at the beginning of each exercise.

• You may listen to each dictation exercise as many times as you wish.

• Also like the listening comprehension exercises, the dictation exercises may be removed from the workbook for correction by the instructor and then may be kept in a binder for reference.

Translation Exercises

The purpose of the translation exercises is to provide you with additional practice in using the grammar patterns and important vocabulary of the unit and to serve as a check of mastery over the material. Completing the translation exercises will be helpful to students in reviewing for the unit tests.

It is recommended that the classroom instructor correct and return the translation exercises to students before the test on the corresponding unit, so that any remaining problems can be identified and addressed in a timely manner. Students should carefully study the instructor’s corrections, making sure they understand why any errors occurred, and file the corrected exercises for later reference.

The translation exercises come in two different sets. The first set of translation exercises consists of five sentences for each of the four Parts or lessons of each Unit in the textbook, while the second set of translation exercises consists of ten sentences for each complete Unit of the textbook. Instructors can decide whether the students in their classes should complete both sets or only one of the two sets. Independent learners would profit from doing both sets of translation exercises and can read out their translations to a tutor or native-speaking friend for correction and comments.

• The sentences should be translated into Pinyin romanization with correct tone marks in the blank space that has been left under each sentence.

• The English in the translation exercises is in some places purposely somewhat stilted, so as to guide the student toward the correct Chinese translation.

• In certain cases, additional instructions have been added in parentheses within or after the English sentence, for example, to be polite or to use or not use certain words or patterns.

• If you’ve forgotten the Chinese equivalent for an English word or grammar pattern, you can consult the English-Chinese Glossary, Chinese-English Glossary, or Index of Grammatical and Cultural Topics in the back of the Basic Mandarin Chinese—Speaking & Listening textbook.

Footnotes

1. Complete scripts of the listening comprehension exercises in Chinese characters are available in the Instructor’s Guide, which also includes other exercises for in-class use.

2. Scripts of the dictation exercises are also included in the Instructor’s Guide.