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Writer's pictureMu Mei Hsueh

Week 2.1 : Helping learners understand the Speaking objectives in the IGCSE Mandarin Chinese

Updated: Nov 20


Helping learners understand the assessment objectives:

It is important to have a clear understanding of the relationship between the assessment objectives and the examination components in order to support your learners in developing the required skills.

There are four assessment objectives in the IGCSE Mandarin Chinese course:

  • AO1 Listening - understand and respond to spoken language

  • AO2 Reading - understand and respond to written language

  • AO3 Speaking - communicate in speech, showing knowledge of a range and variety of vocabulary and applying the grammar and structures of the target language accurately.

  • AO4 Writing - communicate in writing, showing knowledge of a range and variety of vocabulary and applying the grammar and structures of the target language accurately.


 Think about the following questions

  • Which assessment objectives will your learners find most difficult?

  • How will you develop your learners' skills?

  • Which assessment objectives might you find challenging to teach?

  • How will you share the assessment objectives with your learners?


Write short activities to explain each of the assessment objectives

  1. Choose one of the assessment objectives.


  2. On your own, write a short description of an activity that will help your learners to better understand that particular assessment objective and how it is examined. 

    • What examples will you use?

    • What problems do you think your learners will have understanding the assessment objectives?

(The above information is cited from the Introduction to the Cambridge IGCSE Mandarin Chinese (Foreign Language) (0547) Course)


My work

Choose one of the assessment objectives:

AO3 Speaking – Communicate in speech, showing knowledge of a range and variety of vocabulary and applying the grammar and structures of the target language accurately.


A short description of an activity that will help better understand

To improve speaking skills, focus on practical communication like role-playing. For example, I let students choose a short video related to the topic and use Canva to re-edit the video. Students act out scenes from the video, write or rewrite the subtitles in Mandarin, and record their voices as the characters. This helps them practice speaking clearly, using the correct tones, and connecting spoken language with written Chinese. This activity makes speaking practice more fun and engaging.


Please check the teaching plan and the rubric here.



What problems do you think your learners will have understanding the assessment objectives?

Some learners may struggle with using the correct tones when speaking Mandarin, which is very important for meaning. They might also find it hard to connect what they say with how it’s written, especially if they are stronger in one area than the other. For example, they might be good at speaking but struggle to write the corresponding Chinese characters, or they might excel at writing but find it hard to pronounce the words correctly. This challenge arises when their skills in one area (speaking or writing) are stronger than the other, making it difficult to connect the two. Another issue, Learners may also have difficulty speaking fluently and using a wide range of vocabulary without pausing.

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