A comparative analysis of teaching materials for Chinese as a Foreign Language (CFL): The case of shì...de cleft sentences in Mandarin Chinese

This paper examines how the two main types of Chinese shì…de cleft sentences—narrow-focus and broad-focus clefts—are presented in teaching materials for learners of Chinese as a Foreign Language, with a focus on university-level materials intended for the teaching of L1 Italian learners. These constructions are challenging for Italian learners due to the lack of direct equivalents in Italian and the difficulties they pose at the syntax–pragmatics interface, as they require the integration of syntactic and pragmatic knowledge. Moreover, narrow- and broad-focus clefts exhibit distinct properties that are absent in Italian and differ significantly from each other. We analyzed 13 teaching resources commonly used in Italian university-level Chinese L2 courses—including language coursebooks, reference grammars, and teachers’ guides—to examine their pedagogical treatment. The analyses show that both narrow- and broad-focus clefts are described using underspecified terminology with respect to their focusing function. While narrow-focus clefts are consistently mentioned, they frequently lack information on usage restrictions and core properties, despite evidence from acquisition studies highlighting their potential to cause learner errors. In contrast, broad-focus clefts are often omitted altogether. In addition, the materials frequently lack an effective pedagogical sequencing to support learners’ gradual understanding of these structures. The study promotes a functional approach to cleft sentences that emphasizes real-life language use and is supported by multimedia resources to enhance learners’ understanding of their communicative functions.