International Chinese language learners’ cultural vocabulary proficiency: a novel scale development and influencing factors analysis

Cultural instruction plays a vital role in international Chinese language education; however, the systematic integration of cultural content into curricula and teaching materials remains underexplored at the empirical level. This study addresses this gap by investigating learners’ cognitive understanding of Chinese cultural vocabulary, aiming to support more targeted cultural instruction and curriculum development across diverse learner populations. Employing a corpus-based methodology, the study constructed a specialized corpus of 2329 culturally significant words aligned with international Chinese education standards. From this corpus, 93 representative words were selected across elementary, intermediate, and advanced levels to develop a Likert scale-based assessment tool. The tool’s psychometric properties were validated through empirical testing with 255 learners from various cultural backgrounds. Results indicate that learners’ Chinese language proficiency, duration of study, and cultural background significantly influence their mastery of cultural vocabulary. The study offers a novel and validated instrument for measuring cultural vocabulary knowledge, laying the groundwork for data-driven cultural syllabus design and instructional strategies. These findings contribute to enhancing intercultural competence among Chinese language learners and provide a scalable framework for advancing cultural instruction in international Chinese language education.