QCAA Chinese Extension case studies
QCAA Chinese Extension · Put your knowledge to work in context.
Chinese Extension is a Queensland senior secondary subject for students who already have substantial Chinese and want to study it at a level beyond Chinese as an additional language. It is designed for candidates who can already read, write and speak Chinese with reasonable confidence and who want to work with authentic texts: essays, journalism, film, literature and commentary. The QCAA Chinese Extension case studies are 5 cases and about 2,176 words.
1The Weibo Comment Thread and the Missing Context
A Year 12 class is analysing a short opinion piece by a Chinese blogger about whether university students should take part-time jobs. The piece opens with a personal anecdote about a student who worked 20 hours a week and still graduated top of the class.
502 words, about 3 min2Choosing Register in a Formal Exchange
A student is preparing a spoken exchange for assessment. The scenario: she has been invited to a 座谈会 (symposium) at a partner school in Nanjing and must (a) thank the host, (b) explain that her group's research on urban recycling is still incomplete, and (c) ask whether they can present preliminary findings instead of a final report.
465 words, about 2 min3Two Reviews of the Same Documentary
Students watch a short Chinese documentary about a village that has built a homestay tourism industry. Review A, published in a state-affiliated outlet, praises the village's 'revitalisation' and quotes a village official saying incomes have tripled.
460 words, about 2 min4Writing an Extended Response on Filial Piety
For an extended written response in Chinese (approximately 400 characters), students must respond to the prompt: 有人认为，现代社会里'孝'已经过时了。你在多大程度上同意？ ('Some believe filial piety is outdated in modern society. To what extent do you agree?') One student plans to write that filial piety is a traditional value that should be respected, illustrated with the story of a famous ancient exemplar, and to conclude that young people should be more filial.
303 words, about 2 min5The Idiom That Does Not Fit
A student is writing a persuasive essay in Chinese arguing that university students should do volunteer work in rural schools. She wants to strengthen her conclusion and drafts: 总之，大学生支教意义重大。正如古人所说，'塞翁失马，焉知非福'。我们应当积极参与。 Her teacher notes that the idiom is grammatically well-formed and culturally familiar, but that the essay's argument has not been weakened by any misfortune.
446 words, about 2 min