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Chinese (Mandarin)

A-Level Chinese in England is a Pearson Edexcel qualification whose full title is Chinese (spoken Mandarin/spoken Cantonese), specification 9CN0, first taught from September 2017, first assessed in 2019, and current at Issue 5 of 2026. The title is not decoration: the written papers are common to everyone, and the speaking assessment may be taken in either spoken Mandarin or spoken Cantonese. A second structural fact matters just as much and is easy to miss — every assessment is available in both scripts. All questions and texts are printed twice, once in traditional or full characters and once in simplified characters, and the candidate works from whichever version they were taught. There are three components. Paper 1, Listening, reading and translation, runs for two hours, carries 80 marks and is worth 40 per cent: Section A is listening for 30 marks, Section B is reading for 30 marks, and Section C is one unseen translation from Chinese into English for 20 marks. In Sections A and B all questions are set in English and must be answered in English, which is a real difference from the Italian and Russian specifications in the same Edexcel family, where those sections are set and answered in the target language. Paper 2, Written response to works and translation, runs for two hours and forty minutes, carries 120 marks and is worth 30 per cent: Section A is a translation from English into Chinese for 20 marks, marked by a points-based scheme, and Sections B and C are two essays on the two declared works, each marked out of 50, with a recommended length of 250 to 350 Chinese characters each. Paper 3, Speaking, is conducted in the centre by a teacher-examiner inside a five-week window in April and May, carries 72 marks and is worth 30 per cent: Task 1 is a stimulus-card discussion on one sub-theme for 30 marks, and Task 2 is the presentation and discussion of the student's own independent research project for 42 marks. The content is four themes, and here Chinese departs from its sister specifications: each theme has exactly TWO bold sub-themes, eight in all, not three each. Theme 1, 当代华人社会变迁 (當代華人社會變遷), covers 家庭 and 教育与工作. Theme 2, 中国文化 (中國文化), covers 传统 and 文化活动. Theme 3, 演变中的华人社会 (演變中的華人社會), covers 通讯与科技 and 经济与环境. Theme 4, 1978 年改革开放对中国的影响 (1978 年改革開放對中國的影響), covers 变革 and 中英关系. Eight sub-themes means eight stimulus cards for Task 1, two per theme, and the two offered to a candidate always come from two different themes. Alongside the themes sit a prescribed grammar list in Appendix 3, two declared works taken from Appendix 2 — either two literary texts, or one literary text and one film — and an independent research project on a self-chosen question relating to the culture or society of the Chinese-speaking world, recorded on Form RP3 and defended orally. Assessment objectives are weighted 20 per cent AO1, 30 per cent AO2, 30 per cent AO3 and 20 per cent AO4, and no dictionary is permitted anywhere, including the five minutes of speaking preparation.

0/65 Texts13 Chapters~470 min total

Continue reading — Chapter I Table of contents

Pearson Edexcel 9CN0 Theme 1 当代华人社会变迁 - 家庭: 家庭结构和代沟DfE GCE AS and A level subject content for modern foreign languagesPearson Edexcel 9CN0 Theme 1 当代华人社会变迁 - 家庭: 家庭计划和人口老龄化Pearson Edexcel 9CN0 Theme 1 当代华人社会变迁 - 教育与工作: 学校生活和学生议题Pearson Edexcel 9CN0 Theme 1 当代华人社会变迁 - 教育与工作: 工作机会; 工作和生活的平衡Pearson Edexcel 9CN0 Paper 1 Section B - reading, 30 marks, recommended 50 minutes+62 moreStandardAdvanced

Table of contents · 13 ChaptersT·13

Ch. I当代华人社会变迁: family, school and work5 texts · 0 read

Ch. II演变中的华人社会: the internet, growth and the environment5 texts · 0 read

Ch. III传统: the four festivals and the customs around them5 texts · 0 read

Ch. IV文化活动: film, television, music and reading5 texts · 0 read

Ch. V变革: inequality, megacities and internal migration since 19785 texts · 0 read

Ch. VI中英关系: trade, cultural exchange and educational exchange5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VIIGrammar and translation: Appendix 3, both directions, both scripts5 texts · 0 read

Ch. VIIIListening: Paper 1 Section A, and the sounds that hide meaning5 texts · 0 read

Ch. IXReading: Paper 1 Section B, and how to read Chinese without a dictionary5 texts · 0 read

Ch. XSpeaking: Paper 3, the eight cards and the five minutes5 texts · 0 read

Ch. XIThe literary text: Paper 2 Section B and the 50-mark essay5 texts · 0 read

Ch. XIIThe film: Paper 2 Section C and writing about form5 texts · 0 read

Ch. XIIIThe independent research project: Paper 3 Task 25 texts · 0 read

Instrument · 01Recommended study order

Instrument · 02Exam structure

Paper 1 - Listening, reading and translation (9CN0/01): Written examination of 2 hours, 80 marks, 40 per cent of the A-Level - the single largest component. Three compulsory sections. Section A, listening, 30 marks with a recommended 50 minutes: three questions, multiple-choice and open-response, including questions that test summary skills, on a recording featuring Chinese-language speakers across different registers and text types, with sources including material from online media. The recordings reach centres as audio files through Pearson's Secure Download Service before the examination and are available in Mandarin and in Cantonese; each candidate has individual control of the playback and may stop, revisit and replay sections as they wish. Section B, reading, 30 marks with a recommended 50 minutes: four questions on Chinese texts that are authentic or adapted from authentic sources and that mix factual with abstract content, written for different purposes and audiences. In BOTH Section A and Section B all questions are set in English and must be answered in English - the paper tests comprehension of Chinese and expression in English, not production in Chinese. Section C, translation into English, 20 marks with a recommended 20 minutes: one unseen Chinese passage rendered into English, its content drawn from one of the four themes. No dictionary. The AO split is 15 per cent AO1 and 25 per cent AO2, so this one paper carries four fifths of the qualification's comprehension marks.
Paper 2 - Written response to works and translation (9CN0/02): Written examination of 2 hours 40 minutes, 120 marks, 30 per cent of the A-Level. Section A, translation into Chinese, 20 marks with a recommended 30 minutes: one unseen English passage rendered into Chinese, its content drawn from one of the four themes, marked by a points-based scheme in which one mark is given for each correct individual section of language. Questions in Section A are set in English and must be answered in Chinese. Sections B and C, written response to works, 100 marks across 2 hours 10 minutes: two essays, either two on literary texts (Section B) or one on a literary text and one on a film (Section C). Two questions are offered on each work and the candidate chooses one; answering on two films is not permitted. Questions in Sections B and C are printed in both English and Chinese and must be answered in Chinese. Pearson recommends between 250 and 350 Chinese characters per essay to allow detailed analysis, but the whole essay is marked regardless of length. Each essay is marked out of 50 by three separate levels-based grids applied to it individually: critical and analytical response (AO4) out of 20, range of grammatical structures and vocabulary (AO3) out of 20, and accuracy of language (AO3) out of 10. No credit is given for an essay on a literary text whose evidence comes from a film adaptation of that text. No dictionaries, and no documentation relating to the works may be taken into the examination room.
Paper 3 - Speaking (9CN0/03): Externally set, conducted in the centre by a teacher-examiner and marked by Pearson, in one session inside a prescribed five-week period during April and May. 72 marks, 30 per cent of the A-Level. The assessment may be taken in spoken Mandarin or in spoken Cantonese. Total assessment time 21 to 23 minutes: 5 minutes of supervised preparation plus 16 to 18 minutes of speaking, timed from the candidate's first utterance in Task 1. Task 1, discussion on a theme, 30 marks, a recommended 6 to 7 minutes. An invigilator - not the teacher-examiner - offers the candidate a choice in English between two sub-themes, following a sequencing grid supplied by Pearson; neither the invigilator nor the teacher-examiner chooses the order of the cards. There are eight stimulus cards in all, one per sub-theme, two per theme, and the two offered always come from two of the four themes. The card carries a statement on the sub-theme; the candidate has 5 minutes to prepare, may make notes on up to one side of A4, may not write on the card, and may refer to the notes but should not read out prepared sentences. Part 1 is the two compulsory printed questions, repeatable but not rephrasable, plus follow-up on the statement; Part 2 broadens to the wider theme. The three grids are knowledge and understanding of society and culture (AO4) out of 12, accuracy and range of language (AO3) out of 12, and interaction (AO1) out of 6. Task 2, the independent research project, 42 marks, a recommended 10 to 11 minutes. Part 1 is a presentation of no more than two minutes summarising at least two of the written sources used in the research, outlining the authors' main points and giving a personal response, marked out of 12 for responding in speech to written language (AO2). Part 2 broadens to the research as a whole and is marked by the same three grids as Task 1: AO4 out of 12, AO3 out of 12, AO1 out of 6. In both tasks the candidate is expected to take the lead, to ask questions that elicit the examiner's opinions and to check that their own points have been understood.
Script, works, the research project and the rules that catch people out: Script. Every assessment is printed twice, once in traditional or full characters and once in simplified characters, so a centre may teach either and a candidate answers in whichever they know. The accuracy grid for Paper 2 is explicit that infrequent mixing of simplified and traditional forms is an error that does NOT hinder clarity - the specification's own worked example of a tolerated mixture is a sentence in which a few characters appear in the other script - and that missing strokes are tolerated as long as the character is unambiguous. What does hinder clarity, in the specification's own examples, is misuse of near synonyms and the importing of English word order into Chinese. Works. Two works are studied for Paper 2 and must be declared: either two literary texts, or one literary text and one film, taken from Appendix 2. The Appendix 2 literary texts are 北京折叠 / 北京折疊 by 郝景芳, 2016, a novelette; 一只叫凤的鸽子 / 一隻叫鳳的鴿子 by 曹文轩, 2014, a short story; 城南旧事 / 城南舊事 by 林海音, 1960, an autobiographical novel, of which the two chapters 惠安馆 and 爸爸的花儿落了 must BOTH be studied for the set work; and 故乡 / 故鄉 by 鲁迅, 1921. The four feature films are 一个都不能少 / 一個都不能少 directed by 张艺谋, 1999; 请投我一票 / 請投我一票 directed by 陈为军, 2007; 十七岁的单车 / 十七歲的單車 directed by 王小帅, 2001; and 天水围的日与夜 / 天水圍的日與夜 directed by 许鞍华, 2008. Prescribed lists are set by the board and can be revised between issues of a specification, and centres choose from within them, so every candidate must confirm the list current for their own examination series. Research project. The independent research project is the candidate's own question or statement, defined and developed individually, investigated from a range of authentic sources including the internet, with at least two written sources that can be summarised in the presentation, and with the key findings and source list recorded on Form RP3 in Appendix 1. Its subject must relate to the cultural or social context of the Chinese-speaking world; it may be based on any of the four themes or on a subject of the candidate's own choosing; and it must not be based on one of the works studied for Paper 2, although it may legitimately explore that author or film-maker more widely - the life of a writer rather than the novella itself. Assessment objectives across the qualification: AO1, understanding and responding in speech to spoken language and in writing to spoken language, 20 per cent; AO2, understanding and responding in speech and in writing to written language, 30 per cent; AO3, manipulating the language accurately in spoken and written forms using a range of lexis and structure, 30 per cent; AO4, knowledge and understanding of, and critical response to, the culture and society of countries and communities where Chinese is spoken, 20 per cent. The qualification is linear: everything is taken at the end of the course in one series, and no dictionary is permitted anywhere, including the speaking preparation.

Instrument · 03Official sources