Author Description

Step Up with Chinese for Beginners is a pioneering, standards-based introductory textbook series designed by North American educators in collaboration with Chinese language specialists at the Beijing Language and Culture University. Highly learner-friendly and task-centered, Step Up develops all four language skills while incorporating the ACTFL 5 C’s. Students will learn all the necessary material to engage others in meaningful communication and gain a better understanding of the Chinese culture. This three-volume series will cover three years of instruction at the secondary school level. Each volume includes a Textbook, a Workbook and a Teacher’s Guide. Each textbook offers ten themed lessons. Eschewing the traditional text-vocabulary-grammar centered approach, each lesson is broken down into small steps to learn and practice. Each step builds upon previously learned vocabulary and sentence patterns in a systematic way. The accompanying Workbook features a wide variety of different types of exercises to enhance students’ proficiency in all four language skills. Step Up makes an excellent course material for high school students as well as highly-motivated middle school students who have had little or no prior exposure to the Chinese language. Key Features Includes topics relevant to secondary students’ daily life. Breaks down lesson into manageable chunks to help students progress from “bite-size” stages to more lengthy and complex tasks. Spiraling design helps students build upon existing knowledge and facilitates the gradual mastery of skills. Offers a variety of communicative classroom activities to help students achieve target language goals. Interweaves Chinese culture pieces into the texts, visuals and activities. Encourages students to use the target language to talk about their own lives. Reinforces language learning by making connections to other content areas.