Abstract
The nine papers collected in this volume aim at presenting theories and data on Chinese as a foreign language teaching and acquisition. The selected works address the main fields of research related to Chinese teaching: phonetics, writing, vocabulary, syntax, and pragmatics. Each paper introduces the field of research by reviewing the related literature in order to present to the reader not only the main studies but also the key terms and notions to deal with the different topics, from those more often investigated as phonology and writing to those only recently taken into account, as vocabulary and pragmatics. Most of the works present original data and provide therefore the main features of the Italian speaking learner of Chinese. In addition to this, each work suggests how to overcome criticalities and fill the gaps in teaching this language.