Much more than a set of flashcards, the BuilderCards are uniquely designed to help students build their Chinese vocabulary by understanding how groups of words are related.
Research on second-language acquisition has proven that learning groups of associated words is the fastest way to build vocabulary. Using a carefully sequenced order, students will learn head words plus associated words that are linguistically, semantically and pedagogically related to the head words, and build mnemonic connections that will help them recall definitions and interpret unfamiliar words from context.
The structure of the cards allows for a wealth of information, including part of speech, English definition, and pinyin, plus information on radicals and numbers of strokes. This thoroughly designed set will give students confidence as they prepare to take the HSK, SAT II Chinese, AP Chinese, or other Chinese proficiency tests.
For all beginning-level learners of Chinese, but especially designed for students of Integrated Chinese, Practical Chinese Reader, New Practical Chinese Reader, Practical Audio-visual Chinese, Hanyu for Beginning Students, Chinese Primer, Interactions: A Cognitive Approach to Beginning Chinese, and test-takers of Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi (HSK) First Level.
In this Series
First Edition
- Contains 768 head words selected through a statistical analysis of their use in seven standard beginning-level textbook series and the HSK (standard test of Chinese for foreign speakers) word list.
- Teaches a total of 2,894 vocabulary words.
- Each card includes a head word, chosen by the frequency of appearance in seven widely-used Chinese textbooks, pinyin, English definition, radical information, and number of strokes.
- The face of each card includes a key to the chapter or section in each of the seven textbook series in which the character is introduced for quick reference.
- Cards are numbered sequentially based on dictionary order by pinyin romanization. Users may use indices to re-sort the BuilderCards according to their own textbook order and determine how to prioritize the importance of each word in their study.
- A 62-page companion booklet includes a pedagogical introduction, study guide, suggested learning strategies, an index of all words by card number and frequency, and an index to where each word appears in the seven publications.
- Available in simplified or traditional characters with pinyin.
