Practical Dilemmas and Breakthrough Paths in Teaching Chinese Tones in International Chinese Language Education
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.70088/xkj8cj49Keywords:
tone teaching, practical dilemmas, multimodal teaching, perceptual training, international Chinese language educationAbstract
Tone sits at the core of the Chinese phonological system, and how to teach it has long been one of the central challenges in international Chinese language instruction. Research on tone acquisition now stretches back more than three decades, yet classroom practice continues to grapple with a cluster of difficulties: teachers' limited professional knowledge, the absence of connected-speech training in textbooks, learners' negative L1 transfer together with emotional anxiety, restricted instructional hours, and an underuse of technology. This paper reviews these practical dilemmas in a systematic way and, drawing on recent work in perceptual training, multimodal teaching, visual feedback, and contextualized instruction, sets out six paths forward-perception first, multimodal coordination, technological support, contextual integration, autonomous extension, and emotional support. The aim is to narrow the divide between tone acquisition research and classroom practice, and to offer frontline teachers a reference that combines systematic grounding with practical applicability.References
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