交流行动
Jiāoliú xíngdòng — Communication in Action
Middle school opens with a shift in purpose: Chinese stops being a subject and becomes a way to say something you actually mean. Six units, each ending in a task where the language has a job to do.
By the end of Grade 6…
- Interpersonal: hold an unrehearsed conversation and ask follow-up questions
- Interpretive: get the gist of authentic short texts and audio made for children
- Presentational: give a 3-minute prepared talk with visuals
- Reading: 550 characters — enough for graded readers
- Writing: 340 characters, typed as well as handwritten
Typing Chinese starts here
Students learn pinyin input this year: type zhongguo, pick 中国 from the list. It has a useful side effect — choosing the right character from a menu is pure recognition practice, dozens of times a day.
Handwriting continues alongside it. Typing is how they’ll use Chinese; handwriting is how they’ll remember it.
6 units
身份 — Identity
Shēnfèn. Who I am, where my family is from, what I care about.
中学生活 — School Life
Zhōngxué shēnghuó. Subjects, schedules, exams — and school in China compared to here.
饮食文化 — Food & Culture
Yǐnshí wénhuà. Regional cuisines, why food matters socially, and hosting a guest.
数字世界 — The Digital World
Shùzì shìjiè. Apps, messaging, screen time — and typing Chinese properly.
意见和喜好 — Opinions & Preferences
Yìjiàn hé xǐhào. Agreeing, disagreeing politely, and giving a reason.
我的世界 — IPA: My World
Wǒ de shìjiè. All three modes assessed around one theme, for the first time.
What an IPA is, and why it starts now
An Integrated Performance Assessment tests all three modes around a single theme, in sequence: students read and listen to authentic material, discuss it with a partner, then present their own view. Nothing is memorised in advance.
It replaces the vocabulary quiz as the main assessment from Grade 6 on, because by this point the interesting question is no longer “do you know the words” but “can you do something with them when nobody has told you exactly what to say.”