Ideal for: High school, college and adult learners with no prior knowledge of Chinese. This #1 best-selling series is successful because it integrates all four language skills-listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Integrated Chinese helps you understand how the Chinese language works grammatically, and how to use Chinese in real life. Materials within Integrated Chinese are divided into sections of listening, speaking, reading and writing. Two types of exercises are used: there are traditional exercises (fill-in-the-blank, sentence completion, translation) to help learners build a solid grammatical foundation; and there are communication exercises (listening quizzes, speaking drills, discussion topics, etc.) to prepare them to function in a Chinese language environment. Authentic materials written for native Chinese speakers, such as newspaper clippings, signs, and tickets, are used frequently. Topics relate to students' immediate environment (family, friends, school, and work) and focus on practical competencies such as seeing the doctor, making an appointment, shopping, etc. Notes on grammar, language use and Chinese culture are found throughout the textbooks. Character workbooks teach students to write characters in their correct stroke order.