Welcome to the Rutgers Multimedia Chinese Teaching System (RMCTS). This is a computer based multimedia curriculum to supplement First year, Second year, and Advanced Chinese (Third and Fourth year) language instruction at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
RMCTS was developed by the Department of Asian Language and Cultures at Rutgers, with the support of a grant from the U. S. Department of Education. Our intention has been to design an extensive set of materials that will provide students with a substantial amount of practice in reading and listening, and comprehensive drills in grammar and vocabulary. These materials represent further development of the Rutgers Chinese Tutoring System (RCTS) that was created in this department several years ago.
The core of the RMCTS course material is designed to supplement college and university level Chinese language textbooks. The emphasis is on lively and current content and context, and the focus is on the most frequently encountered and most widely used patterns. This system concentrates on the interests and needs of college students in the U.S., and allows them to practice Chinese in a setting beyond their regular text. As the courseware is oriented towards practice and communication , Chinese language programs at other colleges and universities may find the materials easily adaptable to their own needs. By making the courseware available on the Internet, we hope to facilitate its wider use.
Each lesson of RMCTS is designed around a specific topic and a set of grammatical forms. The First year materials introduce the basic grammar and vocabulary of Chinese, with lessons focused on the language learner in an English environment within a university setting. This focus provides immediate and lively relevance to the students first encountering the language. The Second year materials bring the students through lessons that focus on traveling to China and studying the language in a Chinese environment. This emphasis allows the students to prepare themselves for such an experience as their proficiency improves. The Third year materials go into further depth on life in China and how foreign students adapt to life in a Chinese environment. The lessons for this year thus help students develop the linguistic skills necessary for talking about, understanding, and functioning in a new and different culture. The Fourth year lessons move the focus to more enduring features of Chinese life and culture. These include, for example, self reflection within the Chinese cultural environment, critique on Chinese culture and society, and comparison of Chinese habits and customs, from both Chinese and non-Chinese perspectives.
The materials in RMCTS are presented in a user friendly manner. Each lesson is written in both traditional and simplified chinese charactors. In addition to PinYin transcription, English translation of the lesson text is included. The lesson also has vocabulary list, gramatic notes, sentence patterns and exercise as well as the recording of the entire text.
The content and structure of the lessons as described above fulfills the original objective of the RMCTS project. The project team hopes that these lessons meet the needs of students and bring great benefit to the users of RMCTS in their goal to master Chinese. Good luck in your study!
