ABSTRACT
Competence in the Chinese spoken language consist of three components: Pinyin competence (PC) and competence in the receptive mode, listening comprehension, and competence in the productive mode, speaking. This chapter is concerned with assessing PC, listening and speaking in L2 Chinese. The specific features of Pinyin and the spoken language and research on the competencies are briefly introduced first to define the constructs for assessment. Assessment measures and techniques follow the defined constructs and are introduced and discussed for CBA for different purposes and proficiency tests. The Model of Construct Definition for Assessing Learners’ Competence in L2 Chinese proposes that PC consists of the abilities for articulating the sounds, tones, intonations and prosaic variations and understanding accents and Pinyin as input to use various dictionaries and compose texts on computers and digital devices.
