Pedagogical content knowledge: A systematic review of Chinese language pronunciation teaching in the CFL context

Abstract

The increasing attention on Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) pronunciation instruction gives us an opportunity to look into the current directions of teaching CFL and the specific instructional pronunciation strategies employed by CFL teachers. This paper offers a review of empirical evidence on the use and impact of instructional pronunciation strategies in the CFL field from 1980 to 2019. Our findings reveal that: (1) controlled segmental-based strategies—such as comparative strategies, listening, and repeating strategies—are used widely and effectively to improve pronunciation of Chinese initials and finals; (2) suprasegmental-based strategies, especially computer-assisted strategies, largely improve CFL students' tone accuracy; and (3) the validity of assessments in quantitative studies needs to be further developed by including comparative groups, making tests before and after instructions, and involving discourse assessment contents.