As Chinese teachers of Mandarin language program, you must have known the importance of correcting pronunciation mistakes in Chinese teaching. For every adult student who is learning Mandarin in China, correcting pronunciation mistakes is the most common thing. If his pronunciation has never been corrected, I promise that his Chinese must have foreign accent and sound awful.

One experienced teacher from Mandarin language program once said that the Chinese courses without correcting pronunciation mistakes will not be considered as courses and the teacher can only be regarded as language practice partner. To be a professional Chinese teacher of Mandarin language program, you must have professionalism and capability, which can be shown by correcting pronunciation directly.

Some new Chinese teachers even they graduated from Chinese Faculty or English Faculty will feel worried that how should the correcting pronunciation mistake be in the process of Mandarin language program. Here the experienced teacher who has been in Mandarin language program for many years will show you some principles for correcting pronunciation mistakes.

Firstly, you should set a clear example for the students who are having Mandarin language program. Usually we speak very arbitrarily. There will be many liaison, ellipsis and the situation of eating words when we are speaking. Nobody will use the tone of the host or hostess in CCTV-1 to speak in our daily life. But when you are setting the example of pronunciation in teaching Mandarin language program, you must show the students the complete sentence as much as possible and say every word clearly.
Attention that I said “clearly” not “slowly” just now. Because some people will misunderstand that students can hear clearly if you speak slowly, they will make every sound as long as possible. As the consequence, these students will think that the sound should be pronounced that long and they will speak like an old man after a semester of the Mandarin language program taught by you.

Secondly, you should let students speak after listening to your demonstration. Especially for the students who have just taken part in the Mandarin language program, you can’t ask them to do by themselves at the beginning. The best way is to let them try after they have listened to your pronunciation for several times and gotten some feelings. You should understand that pronunciation is not invitation or creation, but imitation.

Thirdly, you should start from easy parts to difficult parts and from old parts to new parts when correcting pronunciation mistakes in Mandarin language program. Parts of speech sounds in Chinese also exist in other languages. These parts will be easier for overseas students who are learning Mandarin in China. You can start with these parts, for example, “a, i, u”. Based on these parts, you can lead students to learn some sounds which are more difficult, such as “ü”. You can ask students to pronounce “i” firstly then purse their lips and the sound of “ü” will be pronounced.

Fourthly, when doing the exercise of correcting pronounce mistakes, students of Mandarin language program need encourages from others. If your students speak well, you can say, “Perfect!” As long as they have a little progress, you should praise them loudly: Better! You are learning fast. Give it one more shot! This kind of encourages can make students have the sense of achievement and enthusiasm.

Here is a small tip for you. Don’t spend too much time on one mistake of your student. Some teacher is over professional, for he may seize one mistake and keep on correcting without stop. Although it is a spirit of responsibility for teachers, this behavior should not be encouraged. You can think about that if you are the student and corrected by other people again and again, how you will feel. Our suggestion is that if the student’s pronunciation doesn’t change at all after being corrected three times, you should think of other strategies to help the student. For example, you can continue the following study contents and when the similar sound appears, your correcting can start again.