Chinese: Second Language Learner F–10 Sequence / Levels 5 and 6 / Understanding / Systems of language
Content description
Form sentences to express details such as the time, place and manner of an action and to sequence ideas
Elaborations
developing knowledge of metalinguistic terminology, discussing, for example: What is the plural form? How do we know it’s plural when reading in English? Can we tell when we read a Chinese word?
recognising that in Chinese, verbs convey tense without verb conjugation, for example, explaining why 有 can mean ‘have’, ‘had’ and ‘will have’
comparing the use of tenses in English and Chinese, for example, how future tense is often expressed through time phrases in Chinese (我明天去北京，下个星期去上海)
identifying the use of adverbial phrases, and extending understanding of sentence structure using subject–time–place–manner–verb–object, for example, 我星期一上学。我在墨尔本上学。我走路上学
examining the clauses of a sentence in Chinese and noticing how they are linked coherently, for example, 他叫王晓明，(他) 是我的朋友 (i.e. no subject/pronoun)
applying processes of discourse development, including joining (也、 和), contrasting (但是) and sequencing (就) information
using alternative language to clarify intended meaning, for example, saying 我不胖不瘦 when they don’t know the phrase 中等身材
