Communicating in Everyday Chinese
Beyond Accuracy: Appropriate Communication in Chinese
This instructional website provides students with explicit instruction in appropriate communication in Chinese as well as a variety of awareness-raising exercises/activities to practice. In particular, this website explicitly teaches students how to appropriately perform everyday speech acts, such as express gratitude, make requests, and make apologies, in Chinese, and introduces relevant politeness principles and cultural conventions. It focuses on the teaching of the repertoire of strategies used to realize the three basic speech acts (i.e., expressions of gratitude, request making, and apologies) in daily life and the impacts of different social variables on the choice of strategies in Chinese.
Though this website does not include exhaustive presentation of all of the linguistic, pragmatic and cultural information that affects appropriate communication in Chinese, it is hoped that the instructional materials can sensitize students to different pragmatic aspects in everyday communication and promote their pragmatic and intercultural awareness when communicating with native speakers of Chinese. In addition to the teaching and practice of appropriate communication in Chinese, the website offers students a glimpse of what modern China looks like, helping them learn more about studying and living in China and thus preparing them for possible study abroad experiences in the future.
