Creation and application of Self-built Corpus in teaching Chinese as a foreign language to Spanish teenagers: A case study

Abstract

As computer technology continuously progresses, corpus-based investigation is increasingly used in the language classroom. Studies have found that corpora can be useful and directly applicable in L2 classrooms (Hunston, 2002; Aston, 2004; Breyer, 2009; Kennedy, 2014; Friginal & Cox, 2022). Corpus-based research and its application are critical signs of language digitization. In teaching Chinese as a foreign language, the research on classroom teaching through corpus is still at the initial stage (Cui & Zhang, 2011). The overall objective of this work is the following: create a corpus using the corpus tool AntConc for Spanish teenagers who study Chinese as a foreign language at the Confucius Institute of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (CI-ULPGC) and apply it to the classroom to improve their ability to use vocabulary at level A2. To this end, we have to answer the following research questions: What are the main theoretical frameworks within the European context that support the creation of a Chinese corpus for secondary school students? How do Chinese teachers use the corpus tool AntConc to build a corpus for the classroom? Does our Chinese self-built corpus help to improve our students' communication skills? Common European Framework of Reference for Language (CEFR, Council of Europe, 2001), ICT Competency Standards for Teachers (UNESCO, 2008), Common Digital Competence Framework for Teachers (CDCFT, INTEF, 2017) and DDL (data-driven learning) are the main documents used as theoretical references for this work. The CEFR is the framework document that shows the general language policy project within the European context; the document of UNESCO in 2008 stipulates that teachers and students must utilize technology effectively for today’s classroom; the CDCFT is a working document for the digital training of teachers, which describes the different levels of essential knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to be digitally competent (A1-C2), and DDL refers to an approach to learning vocabulary with linguistic data; DDL has become the inevitable choice of teaching development in the new era (Johns, 1991; Qi & Zhang, 2022). In addition, our research used an investigationaction methodology divided into the following steps: planning, action, observation, and reflection (Vidal Ledo & Rivera, 2007). Our study subjects were 42 middle school students in 2015-2016. The process of our investigation includes the following: the need to improve the YCT vocabulary (Muñoz, 2014; Cáceres-Lorenzo, 2015; Griffiths, 2015); the creation of Corpus of Chinese for Spanish Students (CCSS) with AntConc (Laurence, 2023); the creation of classroom activities through self-built corpus CCSS; the initial evaluation of our subjects with a pretest; the creation of activities and their applications in the classroom; a corresponding posttest that indicates the degrees of improvement; and finally, the analysis of the results. The results showed a significant improvement between the pretest and posttest and also led to the feasibility of using a self-built corpus to improve communication skills at the YCT-A2 level. According to our case study, we hope this research is an empirical contribution to teaching Chinese as a foreign language through self- built corpus.