Tales and Traditions

Ideal For: Advanced-beginning and low-intermediate students.

Just as children gain literacy in their native language by reading, learners of a foreign language must read large amounts of level-appropriate books and material to attain fluency in their target language. Readings in Chinese Literature was specially created to help learners of Chinese achieve that goal, by collecting the most well-known works in the Chinese literary canon in a series of convenient supplementary readers.

The selections in the Readings in Chinese Literature Series have been adapted to a level appropriate for language learners at four different levels, from beginning level in Volume 1 through superior level in Volume 4. This first volume for beginning learners contains fables and literary quotations, sayings from classical philosophers, and myths and legends. Volume 2, for intermediate learners, contains love stories, fantasies, folk stories, and more fables and literary quotations. Volumes 3 & 4 will present more difficult stories for upper-intermediate and advanced level students.

Perfect for pleasure reading outside of class, or for instructor-directed reading in class, each story includes a short explanation in English, a vocabulary list, and questions to facilitate discussion in both Chinese and English. Stories appear in both simplified and traditional characters on facing pages, and an appendix contains a simplified character text with pinyin for readers still learning Chinese pronunciation.

Readings in Chinese Literature Series exposes students to a wealth of information essential for the development of cultural fluency in Chinese. This series of readings will be especially welcomed as the Advanced Placement* exam and other standardized tests of Chinese increasingly require knowledge of China’s literary, cultural, and historical traditions. With this series students will be well on their way to becoming avid, lifelong readers in Chinese.

 

*AP is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board, which is a separate entity and has not endorsed this product.