Mobile-assisted learning of Chinese as a second/foreign language abroad: A systematic literature review of studies between 2010 and 2022

Abstract

Although Chinese has become one of the most influential second/foreign languages in the world, teaching Chinese as a foreign/second language (CSL/CFL) abroad faces great challenges. M-learning and mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) display great advantages to facilitate second language learning, including CSL/CFL. However, most research was related to English as a second language (ESL) learning. Although mobile-assisted CSL/CFL learning has developed rapidly and steadily, most of these studies were conducted in mainland China and published in Chinese, which was very difficult for non-Chinese speakers to understand. Therefore, researchers should make more efforts to study mobile-assisted CSL/CFL learning abroad. With this in mind, a systematic literature review was conducted to determine the status and trends of this topic. Considering the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 28 articles published between 2010 and 2022 were selected from Scopus and WoS databases. Publication information, research methodology, participant characteristics, mobile technologies, and research findings were summarized and reported accordingly. This review also addressed the limitations of previous research, based on which the related researchers and practitioners could make more efforts to focus on the weaknesses of mobile-assisted CSL/CFL learning.

Keywords

• m-learning
• mobile assisted language learning
• chinese as a foreign language
• chinese as a second language
• systematic review