First Grade Ma Liping Chinese (Volumes 1-3) Course Introduction:

Target audience:Usually 6-year-olds whose family language background is Mandarin Chinese and who have basic Chinese listening and speaking skills
Children older than 2 years.

Teaching content:The textbook consists of three units, including 20 intensive reading articles and 26 reading articles.

Teaching objectives:

• To cultivate students' interest in recognizing characters, reading, listening, and speaking Mandarin, and to impart some basic knowledge of Chinese culture based on the teaching content.
• Recognize 302 new characters. Be able to write 102 new characters, mastering the basic strokes and common radicals of Chinese characters. Learn some basic character recognition methods, requiring accurate pronunciation, recognition of character forms, and understanding of character meanings. Write Chinese characters carefully in the grid according to stroke order and character structure. Develop an initial appreciation for the beauty of Chinese characters.
•  In reading instruction, students are guided to engage in intensive reading in class and extensive reading outside of class. Intensive reading helps students understand the meaning of words and phrases in the text by combining context, pictures, and real-life experiences. Students accumulate vocabulary through reading and are guided to use common words from the text to create simple sentences, understand the content, and learn to retell the text in their own words. This fosters students' imagination and allows them to appreciate the beauty of language through reading.
• The first two books mainly consist of children's songs, requiring students to read and recite the texts correctly, fluently, and expressively in Mandarin. The third book mainly consists of short essays and fairy tales, requiring students to read the texts correctly, fluently, and expressively.
• Learn the commonly used punctuation marks in the text, and appreciate the different tones expressed by periods, question marks, and exclamation marks while reading.

Second Grade Ma Liping Chinese (Volumes 4-6) Course Introduction:

Target audienceChildren aged 7 and above typically come from families where Mandarin Chinese is the primary language, and possess basic Chinese listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, with a vocabulary of around 300 characters.

Teaching content:The textbook consists of three units, including 13 intensive reading articles and 70 general reading articles.

Teaching objectives:

• Continue to cultivate students' interest and good habits in recognizing characters, reading, listening, and speaking Mandarin, ensuring they listen attentively, speak in complete sentences, use their brains when recognizing characters, and persist in reading. Introduce some basic Chinese cultural knowledge based on the teaching content.
• Students will learn to recognize 381 new characters. By the end of second grade, students using Ma Liping's textbook should have a cumulative vocabulary of 683 characters. The curriculum will continue to teach and reinforce basic strokes and common radicals of Chinese characters. Students are required to pronounce characters accurately, recognize their forms, understand their meanings, and write them carefully in the grid according to stroke order and character structure. Efforts will be made to ensure neat handwriting, balanced structure, and beautiful characters. Through reading and writing, students will further appreciate the beauty of Chinese characters.
•  In reading instruction, we continue to guide students to engage in intensive reading in class and extensive reading outside of class. Intensive reading helps students understand the meaning of words and phrases in the text by combining context, pictures, and real-life experiences. Students accumulate vocabulary through reading and are guided to use common words from the text to create richer sentences, understand the content, and learn to retell the main idea or exciting plot points in their own words. We cultivate students' imagination and help them appreciate the beauty of language and text structure through reading.
• Students should be able to read the text aloud correctly, fluently, and expressively in Mandarin, while paying attention to an appropriate speaking speed.
• Continue to learn about the commonly used punctuation marks in the text, further understand the different tones expressed by periods, question marks, and exclamation marks in reading, and be able to use them accurately in sentence construction.

Grade 3 Ma Liping Chinese (Volumes 7-9) Course Introduction:

Target audience:Children aged 8 and above typically come from families where Mandarin Chinese is the primary language, possess a certain level of Mandarin listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, and have a vocabulary of around 600 characters.

Teaching content:The textbook consists of three units, including 18 intensive reading articles and 75 general reading articles.

Teaching objectives:

• Continue to cultivate students' interest and good habits in recognizing characters, reading, listening, and speaking Mandarin, ensuring they listen attentively, express themselves completely, actively learn characters, and persist in reading. They should be able to proactively converse with others in Mandarin. Based on the teaching content, students will learn some basic knowledge of Chinese culture.
• Learn Pinyin, including initials (23), finals (6), and compound finals (18). Be able to spell and read Pinyin, and use it to recognize words and phrases, especially the four tones.
• Students will learn to recognize 364 new characters. By the end of third grade, students using this textbook should have a cumulative vocabulary of 1035 characters. They should be able to pronounce the characters accurately, recognize their forms, understand their meanings, and recognize them according to stroke order and character structure.
  Practice writing Chinese characters correctly. Strive for neat handwriting, balanced structure, and beautiful characters. Further appreciate the beauty of Chinese characters through reading and writing.
• In reading instruction, we continue to guide students to engage in intensive reading in class and extensive reading outside of class. Intensive reading helps students understand the meaning of words and phrases in the text by combining context, pictures, and real-life experiences, and to appreciate the role of key words and phrases in expressing emotions. Students continuously accumulate vocabulary through reading and use common words from the text, including conjunctions, to create richer sentences. We guide students to master reading methods by understanding the four elements of time, place, characters, and events, to grasp the initial content of the text, to learn to summarize the main points, and to carefully appreciate the thoughts and feelings expressed in the text. We cultivate students' imagination and help them appreciate the beauty of language and text structure through reading. Students can accumulate beautiful words, phrases, and excerpts from the text, and those who are capable can try to memorize them. Students should carefully read assigned articles outside of class to improve their reading comprehension.
• Students should be able to read the text aloud correctly, fluently, and expressively in Mandarin, paying attention to intonation and rhythm based on their understanding of the text.
• Continue to learn about the common punctuation marks that appear in the text, further appreciate the different tones expressed by periods, question marks, and exclamation marks in reading, understand the general usage of colons and quotation marks, and be able to use them accurately in sentence construction.

Course Introduction of Ma Liping Chinese (Volumes 10-12) for Grade 4:

Target audience:Children aged 9 and above who come from families where Mandarin Chinese is the primary language, possess good Chinese listening and speaking skills, and have a vocabulary of around 1,000 characters are typically included.

Teaching content:The textbook consists of three units, including 17 intensive reading articles and 120 reading articles.

Teaching objectives:

• Continue to cultivate students' interest and good habits in recognizing characters, reading, listening, and speaking Mandarin. Students should be able to concentrate during lectures, express themselves completely and coherently, actively learn characters, have independent character recognition abilities, and think critically while reading. They should be able to proactively communicate with others in Mandarin and clearly express their wishes. Based on the teaching content, students will learn some basic Chinese history, geography, and cultural knowledge.
• Continue to reinforce your knowledge of Pinyin, and be able to use Pinyin to help you recognize words and phrases, paying attention to pronouncing the four tones correctly.
• Students will learn to recognize 336 new characters. By the end of fourth grade, students using this textbook should have a cumulative vocabulary of 1384 characters. They are required to accurately pronounce the characters, recognize their forms, understand their meanings, and write them carefully according to stroke order and character structure. They should strive for neat handwriting, balanced structure, and beautiful characters. Through reading and writing, students will further appreciate the beauty of Chinese characters and pay attention to the writing format of paragraphs and texts.
• In reading instruction, continue to guide students in intensive reading in class and extensive reading outside of class. Intensive reading helps students understand the meaning of words and phrases in the text by combining context, pictures, and real-life experiences, and appreciate the role of key words and phrases in expressing emotions. Students continuously accumulate vocabulary through reading and use common words in the text, including conjunctions, to create richer sentences, further improving their reading ability. Guide students to master reading methods through the six elements of "time, place, characters, cause, process, and result," to initially grasp the content of the text, and clarify its structure. Students learn to grasp the key points and summarize the main content, and carefully appreciate the thoughts and feelings expressed in the text. Cultivate students' imagination and appreciate the beauty of language and text structure through reading. Students should accumulate beautiful words and phrases and wonderful passages from the text; those who are capable can try to memorize them. Learn rhetorical devices such as metaphor, personification, and parallelism, and appreciate the beauty of language. Students should carefully read assigned articles outside of class to improve their reading level.
• Students should be able to read the text aloud correctly, fluently, and expressively in Mandarin, paying attention to intonation and rhythm based on their understanding of the text.
• Through reading, students will further appreciate the different tones conveyed by punctuation marks and be able to use them accurately in sentence construction.

Sixth Grade Ma Liping Chinese (Volumes 16-18) Course Introduction:

Target audience:Children aged 11 and above typically come from families where Mandarin Chinese is the native language, possess good Chinese listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, have a vocabulary of around 1500 characters, a strong interest in learning, and good study habits.

Teaching content:The textbook consists of three units, including 12 reading lessons and 8 writing lectures and exercises, as well as 4 short stories or chapter novels and 17 excellent model essays for after-class reading.

Teaching objectives:

• This textbook, building upon the extensive reading in fifth grade, serves as an introductory text transitioning from "reading" to "writing." Its writing focus guides students in writing short descriptive essays. To ensure a smooth transition and avoid abrupt changes, Volume 16 continues to prioritize reading, including engaging dialogues, contemporary fairy tales, and stories about life abroad, specifically tailored for overseas students. However, the post-reading requirements differ from the previous year, emphasizing the summarization and expression of written language to lay a foundation for future writing. Building on this transition, Volumes 17 and 18 offer a highly systematic writing training program—including detailed explanations of model essays, appreciation of beautiful prose, essay writing guidance, and writing practice. The writing training progresses from easy to difficult, and from individual skills to a holistic approach. The content features carefully selected masterpieces from both China and abroad, with appropriate difficulty levels, strong demonstrative value, and high readability.
• The teaching content is summarized into eight individual writing exercises and explanations. Based on common problems students encounter in written Chinese, eight grammar points are interspersed throughout the writing exercises, thus alternating between foundational knowledge and writing practice. The latter half of the eighteenth book comprehensively trains students' English-Chinese translation skills, assessing their integrated language application abilities through reading and translating engaging stories.
• After completing this textbook, students will not only accumulate a large vocabulary and grammar knowledge through reading and develop a sense of language, but their summarizing ability and basic writing skills will also receive systematic training and improvement. This lays a solid foundation for them to advance to a higher level.

Course Introduction for Grade 7 Ma Liping Chinese (Volumes 19-21):

Target audience: Usually students aged 12 or above whose family language background is Mandarin Chinese, have good Chinese listening, speaking, reading and writing skills, know about 1,600 new words, have a strong interest in learning and good study habits, and have basic writing skills.

Course content:

• The textbook consists of three units. Adhering to its tradition of emphasizing both reading and writing, it includes nearly 40 texts and reading passages, as well as 8 lessons on writing instruction.
• Each unit in Books 19 and 20 includes one intensive reading text, two to three reading appreciation pieces, and one "Teacher Ma Talks About Writing" article. Besides emphasizing the understanding and application of characters, words, and sentences, they also set specific requirements for students' reading and writing, building upon the descriptive writing skills developed in sixth grade to include writing about people and events. The learning content is extensive and challenging.
• Book 21, "A Catalogue of Mystical Journeys Through China," includes nine articles introducing Chinese geography and culture, allowing students to appreciate China's long history and rich culture while learning Chinese. In addition, the textbook includes weekly and bi-weekly workbooks, holiday assignments, and a CD-ROM, providing students with ample review materials.

Course Introduction of Grade 8 Ma Liping's "Window of Culture" (Volumes 22-24):

Target audience:

Typically, applicants come from families where Mandarin Chinese is the primary language, possess strong Chinese listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, have a vocabulary of around 1700 characters, demonstrate a strong interest in learning and good study habits, and exhibit good oral expression skills.
Students should be able to express themselves freely, have good independent reading and writing skills, and be at least 13 years old.

Teaching content:

The textbook has three units, divided into "Inspiration", "Poetry and Painting", and "Character". There are 24 sentences from the Analects, which are basically retained in the "Inspiration" section. The "Poetry and Painting" section introduces ancient poems, and the "Character" section introduces Qin Shihuang, Guan Yu, Yue Fei and other figures, and ends with a small dialogue "Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties".

Teaching objectives:

Adjust the "language orientation" to a more specific "culture orientation". Through the dissemination of cultural knowledge, learn more about the unique cultural knowledge of the ancestral country, enhance positive self-identification, and make overseas Chinese descendants love the rich cultural heritage of their ancestral country more, and be able to extract its essence and pass it on. And lay the ideological and cultural foundation for better learning "Chinese Cultural Tour".