1. THE PARTICULARITIES OF PINYIN TEACHING IN TEACHING OF CHINESE AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (TCFL) As known to all, one of the prerequisites to learn Chinese well is to learn well its pronunciation. As one of the three essentials of a language, pronunciation is the major medium of speech communication between people. "During the second language teaching, pronunciation affects the situation as a whole. The error of pronunciation will lead to errors of grammar and vocabulary, because the grammar and vocabulary are shown through the pronunciation." (SHENG Yan, 1990) Mr. Chao Yuen Ren once said a classic phrase: "One false pronunciation brings everlasting grief." Mr. LIN Tao also said "Once not pronouncing correctly at the very beginning, one couldn't correct for the whole life. Once speaking with foreign accent, it's very hard and late to correct sometimes." Chinese Pinyin is the basis of the pronunciation of Chinese language. For foreign learners, Learning Pinyin is the very beginning of learning Chinese, which therefore can be counted as the first stage of Chinese language learning. The learning effect of the first stage directly impacts the interest and confidence of foreign learners in learning Chinese, so teachers of TCFL should be fully aware of the importance of Pinyin teaching.
