Chinese for Academic and Professional Communication
CHNSE 150A
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
This course is designed to bring students from ACTFL Advanced-Mid to Advanced-High proficiency in Chinese. It aims to further develop students’ ability to use Chinese in a precise, flexible, and context-appropriate manner across a range of academic and professional domains. Building on prior coursework, the course emphasizes the use of Chinese as a practical tool for engaging with discipline-specific content, expressing complex ideas, and communicating with clarity and purpose, while also fostering students’ analytical and critical thinking skills in Chinese.
The course focuses on developing students’ ability to perform a variety of communicative tasks commonly encountered in academic and professional settings, such as explaining concepts, presenting ideas, analyzing issues, and offering evaluations. Through guided practice and exposure to authentic materials across disciplines (e.g., the humanities, technology, medicine, law, etc.), students will refine their control of advanced vocabulary, rhetorical strategies, and discourse structures. Particular attention will be given to audience awareness, register, and the ability to adapt language use to different communicative contexts. Students will also strengthen their ability to read both closely and efficiently, and to engage with culturally and intellectually meaningful topics beyond the textbook.
Important new features for CHNSE 150a (2026 Fall) include:
- The course will adopt a task-based approach that emphasizes the use of Chinese in academic and professional contexts across disciplines.
- Students will apply these communicative strategies to topics related to their own academic fields or professional interests.
- The course will place increased emphasis on clarity, precision, and audience awareness in formal and semi-formal communication and writing.
Course Notes
No auditors. May not be taken Pass/Fail.
Recommended Prep
Chinese 140b, 142b, or 163 or equivalent.
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
