Chinese as a Second Language
Theory and Practice
Will be published approx. on 31. August 2026
Book
Hardback
300 pages
978-1-009-29888-9 (ISBN)
Description
Chinese language acquisition has been discussed from pedagogical and discoursal perspectives, however this innovative book presents a linguistic perspective on Chinese as a second language. Bridging theory and practice, it provides an authoritative, research-based foundation to enhance Chinese language teaching and learning methodologies globally. Bringing together 18 leading scholars to explore the linguistic underpinnings of Chinese language teaching and acquisition, the chapters cover key areas of language acquisition such as tone, prosody, Chinese characters, syntax, aspect, and pragmatic competence, and offer new theoretical perspectives, such as cognitive approaches, alongside practical applications. Combining the best scholarship from both Chinese and non-Chinese perspectives, it presents a unique, cross-cultural approach, reflecting global collaboration in the Chinese as a Second Language Research Association (CASLAR) community. Aiming to strengthen the theoretical foundations of language teaching, and advancing Chinese language teaching methodologies, this book is an essential resource for educators and students, as well as researchers.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cambridge
United Kingdom
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
Worked examples or Exercises
ISBN-13
978-1-009-29888-9 (9781009298889)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Book
approx. 08/2026
Cambridge University Press
€35.00
Not yet published
Persons
Kecskes Istvan (1947-2025), Distinguished Professor at SUNY, was a highly influential scholar in pragmatics and bilingualism. He authored groundbreaking works, including Intercultural Pragmatics (2014) and English as a Lingua Franca (2019). He was also the esteemed founding editor of the journals Intercultural Pragmatics and Chinese as a Second Language Research. Zhao Yang is Boya Distinguished Professor and Dean of the School of Chinese as a Second Language at Peking University. He earned a PhD in Chinese linguistics from Cambridge. His work in SLA, generative grammar and sociolinguistics has yielded key publications. He holds leadership roles in Chinese and International language teaching and acquisition associations.
Content
1. Acquisition of Mandarin Chinese tone Eric Pelzl and Hang Zhang; 2. Prosody in Chinese as a second language Hana Triskova and Chunsheng Yang; 3. Chinese characters Xin Jiang; 4. Aspect Claire Saillard and Carlotta Sparvoli; 5. Modality: crosslinguistic and Chinese language specific features Carlotta Sparvoli and Lizhen Peng; 6. Chinese adjectives Chaofen Sun; 7. From theory to practice: exploring and the link between cognitive linguistics and Chinese vocabulary instruction Chiara Romagnoli and Huichen S. Hsiao; 8. Word order and syntactic structures Zhao Yang and Giorgio Francesco; 9. Formulaic language and speech acts Yongyi Wu and Istvan Kecskes; 10. Pragmatic competence Istvan Kecskes and Anqi Ding; 11. Cognitive linguistic approach to the development of Chinese as a second language Xu Wen and Alain Peyraube.