QCAA Chinese study guide
QCAA Chinese · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The Chinese General senior syllabus is a Queensland Curriculum & Assessment Authority (QCAA) senior secondary syllabus for students studying Chinese as a senior language subject. The 2025 version is published for implementation with students who will complete their study of the course in 2026 or beyond. It sits within the Languages learning area of the senior subjects, alongside subjects such as Chinese Extension, French, German, Japanese and Spanish. The syllabus is supported by associated material, including a Language elements document, and by a substantial resource library: external assessment past papers from 2020 to 2025 (each with an audio stimulus, marking guide, question and response book and stimulus book), sample assessment instruments for Units 3 and 4, subject reports from 2020 to 2025, an endorsement subject report for 2026, and quality assurance information about confirmation. Topics on this exam: Unit 3 and Unit 4. The QCAA Chinese study guide has 2 sections and about 594 words.
01Unit 3: Chinese Language and Identity - Listening, Reading and Responding
Unit 3 asks how language both reflects and constructs identity: personal, generational, regional and national. You must be able to discuss 家庭结构与代际差异 (family structure and generational difference), 方言与普通话 (regional varieties versus Standard Mandarin), 网络语言与青少年身份 (internet language and youth identity), 移民与语言保持 (migration and heritage-language maintenance), and 中西方身份观念的对比 (contrasts in how identity is framed). For listening and reading tasks, the skill being tested is inference: identifying a speaker's attitude from tone words (语气词, 反问句), not just from literal content. Register confusion : 您/你, 请 versus 给我, 有点儿 versus 有一点.
286 words, about 1 min02Unit 4: Chinese Language and Culture - Written and Spoken Production
Unit 4 moves from reception to production: you analyse and create texts about culture, tradition and change. Key content areas are 传统节日与习俗的现代意义 (modern significance of festivals and customs), 文化传承与创新 (transmission versus innovation), 流行文化与青年价值观 (popular culture and youth values), and 文化交流与刻板印象 (cross-cultural exchange and stereotyping). You must control text types: 通知, 日记, 书信, 演讲稿, 报道, 评论, 邮件. Each has fixed conventions - a 演讲稿 opens with 大家好 and closes with 谢谢大家; a 报道 needs a headline and third-person reporting; a 评论 needs a clear position.
308 words, about 2 min