User's Guide

This textbook series is designed to help students effectively comprehend Chinese podcasts, news broadcasts, and other media. The twenty-four units across the two volumes feature diverse audiovisual content and accompanying articles. Each chapter includes the following sections:

Vocabulary: There are many words that appear in various media that are not used in everyday conversation. The vocabulary lists give characters, pinyin, and definitions as used in the video clip and reading article. The individual words may have other meanings not listed as they are deemed irrelevant in the given context.
Collocations and Common-Use Expressions: At the end of each vocabulary list, you will find a selection of collocations and commonly used expressions featuring words from the list. This section is designed to help you recognize and understand these phrases when listening to the video clips. By isolating key terms from the report and encouraging you to make connections between them, this approach helps you focus on sentence structure and vocabulary in the video content.
Listening Questions: After viewing a video clip, you will have a chance to answer questions about its content in general and in detail. Alternatively, some questions are fill-in-the-blank style and require that you fill in the key vocabulary from the video clip.
In-Class Discussions: This section is designed to give you a chance to discuss thought-provoking ideas, thus thinking about the issues for yourselves, or to ask each other questions about the issues presented in the lesson. It also helps you use and build on what you have just listened to or read.
Structure Patterns: This section lists some of the patterns (bolded on the vocabulary list) found in the video clips or the articles. It provides numerous examples of each sentence pattern and allows you to practice creating your own sentences or translations using the vocabulary words and sentence patterns in each unit.
Reading Passages: The written articles are related to the topics you have listened to. This allows you to extend your knowledge on the subjects you have learned in class as well as helps train you in the skills of skimming, scanning, and grasping the point of an article quickly. Reading the accompanying articles also aids you in developing your intellectual skills and critical thinking abilities.
Outside-Classroom Activities: The homework assignments include activities requiring written and/or oral practice in presenting, summarizing, and analyzing issues related to the lesson. These activities provide students with opportunities to connect what they learn in class to real-life situations and help them incorporate their newly acquired knowledge into their writing and speaking. This, in turn, prepares them for self-driven, lifelong learning.

Our companion website (https://modernchinese.byu.edu) includes video clips for each lesson, authentic listening materials, and a variety of teacher resources.