Is there a textbook with speaking topics and easy sample transcripts?

[Friday]

Mainland bookstores carry many books to help Chinese students prepare for English speaking exams. These usually have 3-4 questions on a page, 200-300 per book, on all manner of topics and then a sample 1-paragraph transcript beneath each question showing how a native speaker might answer.

 

Students can practice speaking to answer each question, and then study the sample transcript to see how they can improve their own speaking. The topics are simple, but also varied, so that one gets an opportunity to practice with many topics without becoming bored.

• These have no vocabulary lists and specialized terms are kept to a minimum.
• The transcripts show language that is acceptable for informal speech.

Does anyone know of a similar book, but for English speakers learning Chinese?

[vellocet]

Nope.  All I've learned from reading dozens of Chinese textbooks is that they all suck compared to the English textbooks that Chinese students use.  Try finding something like "Side by Side"...doesn't exist.  Hell, just try finding one in color.  The "good" teaching material is all at the super-advanced levels.  I get the idea this is because the linguists who write Chinese language textbooks think that lower levels are icky and boring, so they don't write them. 

[suMMit]

How about a book with short texts(not dialogs) on various topics with comprehension questions, followed by discussion points. Are there any books like this?

[yanux]

2 hours ago, suMMit said:

How about a book with short texts(not dialogs) on various topics with comprehension questions, followed by discussion points. Are there any books like this?

The 发展汉语口语 book series on Advanced Level (高1+2级 - students who master 4000+/- words i.e. close to an HSK6 level) go into that direction with quite a lot of modern topics i.e. technology, e-commerce, social challenges etc. Beginner/Intermediate Level of that book series however do not follow the same interesting topic pattern ?

[Jan Finster]

On 2/25/2016 at 3:33 PM, Friday said:

These usually have 3-4 questions on a page, 200-300 per book, on all manner of topics and then a sample 1-paragraph transcript beneath each question showing how a native speaker might answer.

 

I am not aware of any textbooks,  but you can reverse engineer the process and DIY: just google a term, e.g. "独生子女政策" (one child policy) and look for short articles online. Most likely the articles will answer the questions:

a) what is the one child policy?

b) why was it implemented?

c) what are the social implications of this policy?

d) etc.

 

So, then before reading the text, you answer a,b and c by yourself. Then you read the text and see how someone else would have expressed it.