Integrated Chinese

Cheng & Tsui's best-loved Chinese textbook series is new, revised, and better than ever! Integrated Chinese is already the leading introductory Chinese textbook at colleges and universities around the world. The third edition has been significantly updated to meet the needs of today's students with a full-color design, fewer lessons in Level 1 to allow for more flexible pacing, more communicative activities, up-to-date vocabulary, expanded cultural notes, an exciting new storyline linking all the dialogues and readings, and more review sections.

The series provides coordinated practice in the four skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Throughout the series, Integrated Chinese builds on the three modes of communication - interpretive, interpersonal, and presentational - and ACTFL's "Five Cs" -- Communication, Culture, Connections, Comparisons, and Communities - to build proficiency in using the Chinese language in a variety of real-life situations. With its emphasis on practicing a broad range of written and verbal communication skills and building cultural understanding, Integrated Chinese is ideally suited for students who want a comprehensive grounding in the Chinese language.

The Integrated Chinese series is a two-year course that includes textbooks, workbooks, character workbooks, audio CDs, multimedia resources, and teacher's handbooks. Materials are available in both simplified character and traditional character versions.

LEVEL 1 PART 1

• Begins the first year of study in Chinese, and introduces about 350 vocabulary items
• Covers the basics with simple, graded activities on essential topics such as greetings, dates and times, family, and shopping
• Introduces essential grammatical structures
• Positions pinyin texts close to Chinese character texts so students can focus on speaking and pronunciation

LEVEL 1 PART 2

• Continues the first year of study and introduces about 350 more vocabulary items

• Helps learners build communicative skills as they discuss everyday topics and learn useful sentence structures

LEVEL 2 PART 1

• Begins the second year of study with about 300 more vocabulary items
• Covers topics of interest to college-age students, such as campus and family life, social issues, and Chinese cultural traditions
• Includes pinyin texts at the end of each lesson, so students can read characters without relying on pinyin

LEVEL 2 PART 2

• Focuses on important linguistic structures to build and refine learners' understanding of Chinese grammar
• Gradually introduces more formal speech and written-style language

What's New in the Third Edition?

• An all-new, four-color design to facilitate student learning
• Fewer lessons in Level 1 (20) to allow for more flexible pacing
• More task-based, communicative language applications and exercises in both the textbook and the workbook

• A reorganization of the lessons so that each of the dialogues or readings is followed by its own Vocabulary, Grammar, and Language Practice sections

• An exciting new storyline now links all the dialogues and readings
• New photos, illustrations, and authentic materials such as menus, street signs and tickets have been added throughout

• Learning Objectives have been added to the beginning of each lesson to help students focus their studies and achieve language learning goals
• Relate and Get Ready introductory questions for each lesson were designed to help students relate the learning objectives to their own cultural knowledge and communicative goals
• New up-to-date, relevant vocabulary and a How About You? section in each lesson that presents fun supplementary vocabulary personalized to fit students' interests

• The Culture Highlights section provides just the right amount of relevant, interesting cultural information in a consistent place in each lesson
• Let's Take a Break sections after every five lessons for review and reinforcement

• A Progress Checklist at end of each lesson allows students to track their own progress and identify areas for further review
• The comprehensive grammar coverage now has clearer explanations and examples
• A detailed plan of scope and sequence to aid in lesson planning.
• Exercises in the Workbook are arranged in two parts for each lesson, corresponding to the two dialogues or readings in the textbook
• The Workbook now includes brief "Let's Take a Break" review lessons after every 5 lessons for cumulative practice and reinforcement
• Audio recordings include English translations for studying on the go and are available on CD or as MP3 downloads
• The Character Workbook includes more practice space for each character and radical information for each character
• Teacher's Handbook (available 2009) will include answer keys, lesson planning and teaching tips, additional classroom activities, sample quizzes, and more!