One of the principal missions of the Chinese Language Enhancement Programme (CLEP) is to design and deliver courses for undergraduates in ALL Faculties of the University, courses that are intended primarily to raise their level of competence in the Chinese language. Emphasis is placed on practical and professional writing skills. Unless exemption is granted by the home Faculties under special circumstances, all full-time undergraduates have to take the compulsory Practical Chinese Language Courses (PCLCs) to fulfil the UG5 graduation requirements. These courses, together with the voluntary Putonghua courses, language workshops and Special Study Modules, cater to the specific needs of students from different backgrounds and disciplines. The ultimate goal of the Programme is to train students to be effective communicators and life-long learners and to equip them for future careers.

The year of offer of the PCLCs varies from one Faculty to another, and students will be notified accordingly.

Timetable of CLEP

Please note that each undergraduate in any Faculty and in any curriculum can take only one CLEP course. Having completed one course, a student will not be allowed to enrol in another one.

Students who have sat and passed the HKDSE examination in Chinese Language (Cantonese) are not permitted to take the CUNDxxxx courses.

All CLEP courses are compulsory and may not be selected as electives.

CLEP Courses (2021 – 2022)

Course Code: CARC9001
Course Title: Practical Chinese for Architecture and Landscape Students
Course Description:
The main objective of this course is to enhance the students’ command of Chinese for the architecture profession through basic training in presentation skills and in specific techniques for the preparation of target-oriented letters, proposals, plans and reports. This course also aims to develop students’ ability to engage in negotiations, debates as well as critical and creative thinking. In order to promote artistic and aesthetic appreciation, thematic lectures and topical workshops on Chinese calligraphic and artistic representations will be conducted. Site visits to traditional Chinese temples, gardens and museums will be organized to provide students with opportunities to gain hands-on experiences of the inner dynamics of Chinese language and culture. Students will be able to acquire sophisticated Chinese language skills and knowledge of Chinese culture within the context of the discipline of architecture.

Course Code: CART9001
Course Title: Practical Chinese for Arts Students
Course Description:
This course is designed to enhance the students’ competence in the use of Chinese in the workplace. It helps students to master the techniques of writing different types of practical writings such as emails, business letters, brochures, leaflets, reports and proposals. There are drilling practices to familiarize the students with simplified Chinese characters frequently used in the workplace context.

Course Code: CBBA9001
Course Title: Practical Chinese for BBA/BBA (Acc&Fin) Students
Course Description:
This course aims to promote the necessary Chinese language skills to respond to the demands of business communication and novel situations. It helps the students to become conversant with the forms and conventions of practical writings and to approach linguistic issues from a cultural perspective. Emphasis will be placed on both traditional and simplified Chinese characters. Students are required to present their oral and written reports on social-economic issues confronting the people of Hong Kong.

Course Code: CBBA9002
Course Title: Practical Chinese for BBA (IS) Students
Course Description:
The main objective of this course is to promote the professional use of the Chinese language in the fields of Business and IT. It aims at helping students to master the skills of letter writing, email writing, target-oriented proposals in their profession. In the Chinese characters component, there are drilling practices to familiarize the students with the frequently used terms in their simplified forms. Special emphasis is given to presentation skills.

Course Code: CBBA9003
Course Title: Practical Chinese for BEcon/BEcon&Fin/BSc(QFin) Students
Course Description:
Featuring problem-based learning (PBL) and collaborative learning approaches, this course aims to help students, through lectures, tutorials and cases-based workshops, develop the ability to use the Chinese language effectively in the workplace. A key focus is on the use of Putonghua in presenting information for audiences. Essential techniques for producing office documents as well as reports will also be discussed.

Course Code: CBBA9004
Course Title: Practical Chinese for BBA (IBGM) Students
Course Description:
The main objective of this course is to promote the professional use of the Chinese language in the field of Business. It aims at helping students to master the skills of letter writing, email writing and target-oriented proposal writing in their profession. In the Chinese characters component, there are drilling practices to familiarize the students with the frequently used terms in their simplified forms. Special emphasis is given to presentation skills.

Course Code: CBBL9001
Course Title: Practical Chinese for BBA (Law) Students
Course Description:
This course is designed to enhance the students’ Chinese language proficiency for legal uses. The students are trained to master the skills to write business letters, notices and announcements, minutes, emails, proposals and reports for legal purposes. Topics that are closely related to the students’ future careers include “The Use of Chinese in Statutes” and “The Use of Chinese in Commercial Documents such as Contracts and Agreements”. There are also drilling practices to help the students memorize frequently used legal terms in their simplified forms. Group presentations are designed to sharpen the students’ skills in presentation and discussion.

Course Code: CDEN9001
Course Title: Practical Chinese for Dentistry Students
Course Description:
This course is designed to enable students to gain a mastery of the varieties of the Chinese language as used in the field of Dentistry. It introduces students to various techniques for the effective use of practical Chinese. The course will familiarize students with traditional Chinese characters, simplified Chinese characters, modern Chinese grammar and rhetoric through outcomes-based assignments. Special training that is intended to sharpen students’ presentation skills in Cantonese and Putonghua will also be provided.

Course Code: CDEN9002
Course Title: Functional Chinese for Dentistry Students
Course Description:
This course is specially developed for students in the Faculty of Dentistry who received Chinese training in educational settings different from the HKDSE entrants and who have attained a reasonable level of competence in the Chinese language. The main objective of this course is to sharpen students’ presentation skills and help them build up their dental vocabulary in Chinese. Special emphasis will be placed on the essential techniques for written and oral communication in Chinese. Equipped with these language skills, the students should be ready for the challenges in their interactions with their patients and colleagues.

Course Code: CEDU9001
Course Title: Practical Chinese for BSc (Sp&HearSc) Students
Course Description:
This course aims to introduce students to the necessary Chinese language skills to respond to the demands of their profession and the needs of related audiences. It highlights the various writing techniques in the use of practical Chinese. Students will familiarize themselves with the Traditional Chinese characters, Simplified Chinese characters, Modern Chinese grammar and rhetoric through the outcomes-based assignments. The fundamentals of Cantonese phonetics are covered and students are required to present their oral and written reports on speech issues confronting the people of Hong Kong.

Course Code: CEDU9002
Course Title: Practical Chinese for BA&BEd (LangEd) Students
Course Description:
The course is specifically designed to enhance students’ Chinese proficiency for the language teaching profession. For written Chinese, students are introduced the etymological viewpoint in the study of Chinese characters, including traditional Chinese characters and simplified Chinese characters. For practical usage, a grammatical approach is adopted to enhance students’ sensitivity to the distinctive characteristics of the Chinese language. Another key objective of the course is to sharpen students’ skills in writing formal official letters, notices and announcements, proposals and reports for the education sector. For spoken Chinese, presentation skills in Cantonese are emphasized.

Course Code: CEDU9004
Course Title: Putonghua for BA&BEd (LangEd) Students
Course Description:
This course is designed to prepare students to teach Putonghua or to use Putonghua as a medium of instruction in their future careers as school teachers. With a strong emphasis on the accuracy of pronunciation and the ability to describe and analyze the speech sound of Putonghua, this course features a thorough analysis of the phonetic system of Putonghua and a needs-based approach in instruction. Drilling practices are put in place to enhance students’ capacity to produce the correct sounds and to identify and analyze the problematic and erroneous ones. In order to motivate the students to learn, words, phrases and sentences frequently used in the language teaching workplace are used as instructional materials.

Course Code: CEDU9006
Course Title: Practical Chinese for BSc (Exercise & Health) Students
Course Description:
The main objective of this course is to promote the professional use of the Chinese language in the field of Exercise Science. It aims at helping students to master the skills of letter writing, email writing and target-oriented proposal writing in their profession. In the Chinese characters component, there are drilling practices to familiarize the students with the frequently used terms in their simplified forms. Special emphasis is given to presentation skills.

Course Code: CEDU9007
Course Title: Practical Chinese for BEd&BSc Students
Course Description:
This course aims to hone the students’ Chinese skills for effective professional communication. It introduces the students to techniques of writing different types of practical writings. In addition, topics addressing the style and techniques of reader-based writings and PowerPoint presentations are included to heighten the students’ linguistic sensitivity. Drilling practices are also put in place to familiarize the students with the simplified Chinese characters frequently used in the workplace.

Course Code: CEDU9008
Course Title: Practical Chinese for BEd & BSocSc Students
Course Description:
Featuring problem-based learning (PBL) and collaborative learning approaches, this course aims to help students, through seminars and cases-based workshops, develop the ability to use the Chinese language effectively in the workplace. A key focus is on how to systematically present arguments in classroom contexts. Essential techniques for producing office documents as well as reports will be discussed. Training in reading and writing the correct forms of traditional and simplified Chinese characters will also be provided.

Course Code: CEMD9001
Course Title: Practical Chinese For BASc(GHD) Students
Course Description:
This course aims to enhance students’ competence in the use of practical Chinese to respond to the complex global health and development challenges. It highlights the key techniques of preparing Chinese documents such as professional letters, reports, notices, minutes as well as newspaper and magazine articles. In-class presentations are designed to sharpen the students’ oral communication skills. This course also covers topics such as traditional and simplified Chinese characters and modern Chinese grammar, through which students may gain a better understanding of the distinctive characteristic of the Chinese language.

Course Code: CEMD9002
Course Title: Practical Chinese For Nursing Students
Course Description:
This course is designed to enhance the students’ competence in the use of the Chinese language in the nursing profession. The primary objective is to sharpen the students’ skills in writing conventional letters, office documents, comments and assessment reports in the workplace. In the “Written Chinese” component, an etymological approach is adopted, and in the “Practical Usage” component, the emphasis is on a grammatical analysis of Chinese texts. Drilling practices are put in place to familiarize the students with the specialized terms in their simplified written forms. The module “Presentation Skills” is designed to enable the students to verbally express their ideas clearly.

Course Code: CEMD9003
Course Title: Practical Chinese for Chinese Medicine Students
Course Description:
This course is specifically designed to equip the students with the skills to effectively use Chinese in the medical profession. It trains the students to develop a firm grasp of both classical and modern Chinese. A key objective of the course is to sharpen the students’ skills in writing letters, brochures, leaflets, reports and proposals. There are drilling practices to familiarize the students with the specialized terms in their simplified written forms.

Course Code: CEMD9005
Course Title: Practical Chinese for Pharmacy Students
Course Description:
This course is designed specifically to raise the students’ level of proficiency in the use of the Chinese language in the pharmacy profession. It aims at sharpening the students’ skills both of writing documents (such as letters, pamphlets, newspaper and magazine columns) and of effectively communicating with patients. Emphasis is placed on how to use Chinese pharmaceutical terms in a precise and concise manner. Common technical terms frequently used in the official Chinese Pharmacopoeia will also be brought to the attention of the students so as to enhance their ability to comprehend pharmacological writings in Chinese. There are also drilling practices to familiarize the students with the simplified forms of some basic Chinese medical terms.

Course Code: CEMD9006
Course Title: Practical Chinese for MBBS Students
Course Description:
This course is designed to raise the students’ level of proficiency in the specialized usage of Chinese in the medical profession. Students will become familiar with the medical terms in their traditional and simplified Chinese forms. The modern Chinese grammar and essential techniques for writing functional Chinese will be highlighted. Students are expected to demonstrate a high level of communicative competence in novel situations. The ultimate goal of this course is to equip the students with the necessary language skills for their future pursuits and to enable them to effectively communicate with their patients and colleagues whose mother tongue is Chinese.

Course Code: CEMD9007
Course Title: Functional Chinese for MBBS Students
Course Description:
This course is specially designed for students who received Chinese training in educational settings different from those in Hong Kong and who only have a basic knowledge of the language. It aims specifically at sharpening the students’ presentation skills. Essential techniques for writing and speaking communication in Chinese will be highlighted. The growing importance and relevance of the Chinese language in academic and professional settings is increasingly evident in the modern world. The ultimate goal of this course is to equip the students with the necessary language skills for their future pursuits and to enable them to effectively communicate with their patients and colleagues who have no knowledge of other languages except for Chinese.

Course Code: CEMD9008
Course Title: Practical Chinese for Biomedical Sciences Students
Course Description:
This course is designed specifically to raise the students’ level of proficiency in the use of the Chinese language in the field of biomedical sciences. It aims at sharpening the students’ skills both of writing documents (such as letters, brochures, leaflets, reports and proposals) and of effectively interacting with professional practitioners and members of the public in Chinese. There are also drilling practices to familiarize the students with the simplified forms of some basic Chinese biomedical terms.

Course Code: CENG9001
Course Title: Practical Chinese for Engineering Students
Course Description:
This course is designed to enable students to gain a mastery of the varieties of the Chinese language as used in the field of Engineering. It introduces students to various techniques for the effective use of practical Chinese. The course will familiarize students with traditional Chinese characters, simplified Chinese characters, modern Chinese grammar and rhetoric through outcomes-based assignments. Special training that is intended to sharpen students’ presentation skills in Cantonese and Putonghua will also be provided.

Course Code: CEUC9001
Course Title: Practical Chinese for Surveying, Urban Studies and Conservation Students
Course Description:
The main objective of this course is to enhance the students’ command of Chinese for the construction and surveying profession through basic training in presentation skills and in specific techniques for the preparation of target-oriented letters, proposals, plans and reports. This course also aims to develop students’ ability to engage in negotiations, debates as well as critical and creative thinking. In order to promote artistic and aesthetic appreciation, thematic lectures and topical workshops on Chinese calligraphic and artistic representations will be conducted. Site visits to traditional Chinese temples, gardens and museums will be organized to provide students with opportunities to gain hands-on experiences of the inner dynamics of Chinese culture. Students will be able to acquire sophisticated Chinese language skills and knowledge of Chinese culture within the context of the discipline of surveying, urban studies and conservation.

Course Code: CLAW9001
Course Title: Practical Chinese for Law Students
Course Description:
This course is designed to enhance the students’ proficiency in the use of the Chinese language in the legal profession. It helps to sharpen the students’ skills in writing formal letters, notices, announcements, proposals and reports. As a variety of the Chinese language, legal Chinese has its own distinctive characteristics, which are explored in this course. A special topic in this course is “Characteristics of Chinese Legal Language”. The students are trained to express their ideas and views lucidly in Chinese in a legal context. Drilling practices are provided to familiarize them with the simplified forms of frequently used legal terms.

Course Code: CSCI9001
Course Title: Practical Chinese for Science Students
Course Description:
This course aims to enhance the students’ competence using Chinese for professional communication. It helps the students to master the techniques of writing different types of documents such as memos, emails, letters, announcements, notice, brochures, leaflets, and reports. In addition, topics addressing presentation and discussion techniques, the style and rhetoric of reader-based writings are included to heighten the students’ linguistic sensitivity.

Course Code: CSSC9001
Course Title: Practical Chinese for Social Sciences Students
Course Description:
Featuring problem-based learning (PBL) and collaborative learning approaches, this course aims to help students, through seminars and cases-based workshops, develop the ability to use the Chinese language effectively in the workplace. A key focus is on the use of Putonghua in presenting information for audiences. Essential techniques for producing office documents as well as reports will be discussed. Training in reading and writing the correct forms of traditional and simplified Chinese characters will also be provided.

Course Code: CUND9002
Course Title: Practical Chinese and Hong Kong Society
Course Description:
This course is specifically designed for the students from the Mainland. With Putonghua as the medium of instruction, it aims to underscore the characteristic styles and formats of practical Chinese writings in the workplace context in Hong Kong. Topics addressing the rhetorical strategies for reader-oriented professional writings are included to strengthen the students’ command of the language. In the “Chinese Characters” component, drilling practices provide ample opportunity for the students to learn to convert simplified characters into their traditional forms. The evolution of Cantonese and the lexical and phonetic systems of this dialect will be explored. The local history and culture of Hong Kong will also be considered. On-site visits are organized to deepen the students’ understanding of local traditions and, more importantly, to enhance their ability to appreciate and accept cultural and regional differences.

Course Code: CUND9003
Course Title: Cantonese for non-Cantonese Speaking Students
Course Description:
Through a comparative analysis of Putonghua and Cantonese, this course enables students to learn the characteristics of Hong Kong Chinese, to discover the differences in vocabulary and expression between the Cantonese dialect and Mandarin, to strengthen their communication skills in everyday life, and to have a proper understanding of the culture, traditions and people in Hong Kong.