Characters and words are not only the knowledge base for learning Chinese but also the constituents of syntax and discourse analysis. They are further learning concepts in the Mandarin curriculum guideline. Previous studies and reports on Chinese characters and words are mostly listed in accordance with frequency and cumulative frequency. Neither standards for classification nor different categories and linguistic features they have. As a result, it is impossible to select characters and words that are more core and prioritized in teaching. Moreover, at present, the numbers of Chinese characters and words learned by K-12 students in the Mandarin curriculum guideline in the 12-year basic education are sourced from “The Report on Commonly Used Words by Elementary School Students” (MOE, 2000), which is compiled more than ten years ago and hence is difficult to reflect real language usage today. Based on the importance of Chinese characters and words in language education, to make an updated survey on the usages of characters and words which is advanced with the times and in line with language literacy of K-9 students, this project will adopt corpus-based method to calculate character and word sorting statistically, analyze their polyphonic and polysemous features, and, according to Chinese curriculum in the 12-year basic education, finally develop standards for classification of Chinese characters and words frequently used by K-9 students, in which the subtle linguistic analyses reflect the actual usages of our languages. As a result, this project will design the structure and workflow of standards and develop the contents for classification of Chinese characters and words frequently used by K-9 students, which will make the construction of Chinese education knowledge base more complete and could be a reference for Chinese characters and words learning in each round of guidelines for Chinese curriculum revision, and be further applied to textbooks and reference books compilation, and testing and assessment development.
