This course is designed to help you, our Advanced learners, comprehend and produce discourse-level Chinese in many different societal and global contexts. It is also tailored for those who might have completed three years (or an equivalent amount) of training in all four skills, i.e., reading, listening, speaking, and writing, to further improve your language skills from your entrance OPI level, mostly Advanced (including Intermediate-High, Advanced-Low, and Advanced-Mid), to at least one sublevel above and beyond, even to Superior (Advanced-High and Superior). Level 4 teachers and students will collaborate to create a diverse, inclusive, and customized learning environment to maximize the benefits of your learning outcomes and to render students’ efforts meaningful.

You will read texts written and prepared by our teaching team which incorporate a variety of topics and genres frequently encountered, not only in one specific Chinese-speaking community, but also from a perspective of Chinese as a global language. The topics include, but are not limited to, issues in sociology, psychology, politics, biology, law, philosophy, literature, the environment, art, and film. You are expected to come to each class with careful preparation of the assigned materials, and we firmly believe that students who are highly motivated to participate in our distinguished program will enjoy doing so for their foreseeable learning outcomes. In addition to attending our lecture, discussion, and 1-on-1 tutorial sessions, you will also conduct two independent research projects based on your research interests under the guidance of our teaching team, as well as a digital reflection project to monitor your learning progress and wrap up your learning experience in Middlebury Chinese Summer School Level 4.

Required texts:
No textbook or material purchase is needed. You can find all the materials on our course website. Our class materials are written and prepared by our teaching team, and they are subject to change to accommodate students’ needs. Other audiovisual materials will also be curated and shared on our course website to help you better understand contemporary issues in various aspects related to Chinese-speaking communities.

Recommended Dictionaries: Deng, G., Ed., A New English-Chinese Dictionary, University of Washington Press; Deng, G., Ed., A New Chinese-English Dictionary, University of Washington Press.