Advanced Chinese: Discourse, Pragmatics, and Critical Language Use is an advanced-level short course designed for learners who wish to move beyond basic fluency and develop greater precision, flexibility, and depth in Chinese communication.

The course focuses on how Chinese is used to express complex ideas, manage interpersonal meaning, and engage critically with abstract and socially embedded topics. Through guided discussion and explicit language instruction, students learn to organize extended discourse, adjust register and stance, and navigate pragmatic subtleties in academic and real-world contexts.

The course consists of six interconnected weekly sessions, each focusing on different themes, communicative contexts, and language skills. Rather than repeating the same content, each session introduces new linguistic and pragmatic challenges that progressively expand students’ communicative repertoire. Students who complete all six sessions will benefit from a coherent learning journey and substantial improvement in their Chinese proficiency. At the same time, each session is designed to be meaningful as a stand-alone learning experience, allowing students to participate flexibly according to their interests and availability.