Chinese language and culture 3600-7-SI2-JKCH1

**HSK Standard Course 3** is designed for learners who have completed around 70 hours of Chinese study and mastered approximately 300 Chinese words.

The book consists of 20 lessons, each divided into four scenarios. Each lesson introduces about 12–21 new words and covers 2–3 language points. The language content is extended in both complexity and depth, with the addition of new words using familiar characters, knowledge about Chinese characters, and commonly used idioms.

Each lesson includes the following sections: warm-up, text (with vocabulary), notes, exercises, Chinese characters, application, and idioms. Every four lessons, a character knowledge section is added, covering ideographic characters, associative compounds, and phono-semantic compounds through explanations and practice. Every five lessons, a cultural section is included as an extension to the text, introducing relevant cultural background knowledge.

1. **Warm-up**: Mainly uses pictures to introduce key words and phrases of the lesson, stimulating learners' interest in expression and preparing them for the new content.

2. **Text**: The first 10 lessons each contain four different scenarios, each with three rounds of dialogue. In the later 10 lessons, the texts become longer and more complex, with the fourth scenario replaced by a short passage. The vocabulary and language points of the lesson are reinforced across different scenarios.

3. **Notes**: Grammar is downplayed in this course. Language points are explained in the form of concise and clear annotations that are easy to learn and remember. Each grammar item explanation focuses only on its usage in the lesson text and includes example sentences ranging from simple to complex. Emphasis is placed on practice over instruction, with more exercises and less explanation.

4. **Exercises**: Found after the notes section in each lesson. They reinforce the new language points and key vocabulary learned in the lesson. Exercises are intuitive and include vocabulary expansion, fill-in-the-blank, dialogue completion using new words and expressions, and comprehension questions based on the text.

5. **Chinese Characters**: Every four lessons, a character knowledge section introduces the construction methods of ideographic, associative, and phono-semantic characters using visuals and written explanations to help learners understand and remember characters. Each lesson also includes a “new words with old characters” section, which selects commonly used words from the current or previous texts, teaching learners to understand and create new words using familiar morphemes.

6. **Application**: Each lesson includes pair and group activities. These are designed to help learners use the newly acquired language points and vocabulary in realistic situations through cooperation with others. Learners either complete a communicative task or an assignment, enhancing their communicative competence.

7. **Idioms**: Based on the limited vocabulary from the first three levels, 20 commonly used Chinese idioms are selected. These are presented with texts, images, and translations, helping to enrich learners’ cultural knowledge.

8. **Culture**: Level 3 includes four cultural sections in Lessons 5, 10, 15, and 20. These focus on everyday communicative culture suitable for learners at this level. The four topics are: traditional sports in China, what Chinese people wear at weddings, what Chinese people eat on birthdays, and what gifts are inappropriate to give in Chinese culture.