Your Success in Learning Chinese Has Nothing to Do with Luck
The path to success is comprised of many significant small steps, and to have a conscious change of attitude.
At MSL Master, the path of learning Chinese is defined by two inter-related and also stand-alone series of Chinese textbooks, Mandarin Express series and Chinese Reading and Writing series. These books are for non-Chinese speakers to learn Chinese efficiently, effectively and systematically, talking them from complete beginners to Chinese proficiency and cultural literacy.
The Four Stages of Learning Mandarin Chinese
These two series of Chinese textbooks help students build up their Chinese language skills and cultural knowledge in four stages. As students progress from a lower stage to a higher stage, they will experience a different type of instruction, and their participation and contribution in the class will also gradually become more and more important to their success.
Introduction
With no prior knowledge of the Chinese language, students get familiar with the sound of Chinese, learn basic sentence structures, and carry on basic conversations of daily topics.
Mandarin Express Intro Level A Student's Book & Work Book
Foundation
Students acquire 320 basic Chinese characters and develop sophisticated skills in reading and writing Chinese texts. At the same time, they learn to be expressive on various important topics.
- Chinese Reading and Writing 1
- Mandarin Express Intro Level B Student's Book & Work Book
- Chinese Reading and Writing 2
- Mandarin Express Basic Level A Student's Book & Work Book
- Chinese Reading and Writing 3
- Chinese Reading and Writing 4
- Mandarin Express Basic Level B Student's Book & Work Book
- Chinese Reading and Writing 5
- Chinese Reading and Writing 6
Development
Students learn 2000 to 2500 characters rapidly, acquire more complex sentence structures, and develop their abilities in presenting and writing in Chinese on many contemporary topics.
- Mandarin Express Pre-Intermediate Level A Student's Book & Work Book
- Mandarin Express Pre-Intermediate Level B Student's Book & Work Book
Acculturation
Students read long analytical articles and a selection of classical texts ranging from 2100BCE till the 20th century, and get an acute sense of Chinese cultural literacy.
Why we publish two series of Chinese textbooks
Two series of Chinese textbooks, which clearly separate between learning to interact orally and learning to read and write, is the best approach to the task of learning Chinese.
How we make Chinese textbooks culturally significant
When addressing to students of different cultural backgrounds, it is important to find the right approach to present Chinese culture and to draw students into the discussions.
Chinese curriculum a set of incremental progressions
A high quality Chinese curriculum can guide students through a series of incremental progress, with clear instructions, targeted exercises and sufficient repetitions.
The techniques we use to gauge levels of difficulties
We use a set of metrics to determine the level of difficulties, so that the beginner’s Chinese textbooks are not too hard, or the advanced not too easy.
Learning Chinese by doing - The essential functionality of Work Books
Understand the structure of Mandarin Express Work Books, an essential component of our Chinese textbooks, and also get some ideas for writing exercises.
Supporting resources for teaching and learning Chinese
In addition to two series of Chinese textbooks, there are many useful resources and interactive devices ready to support teaching and learning Chinese.
Master Chinese Proficiency and Cultural Literacy
These two series of Chinese textbooks are a departure from the traditional approach to learning Chinese. Traditional textbooks are usually made up with a few blocks in each lesson, including a new vocabulary list, main text, a list of grammar points, and some written exercises at the end. There is only one metric that determines the level of difficulties, the amount of new words. April Zhang considers this format is the least inspiring and the least effective approach to learn Chinese.
After many years of development, April is able to create a new format which actually invites students to engage in the process of learning Chinese. Special techniques are applied to make sure students have sufficient opportunities to speak, to question, to present, to explain, and to critique. Different metrics are applied to gauge levels of difficulties. A separate Work Book is written for more targeted exercises.
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