AI 시대 창의성 함양을 위한 중국어 교육 모형 탐색 - IMRS 교수·학습 모형을 중심으로 = A Theoretical Exploration of Chinese Language Education for Fostering Creativity in the AI Era: Focusing on the IMRS Teaching-Learning Model

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This study aims to redefine the direction of Chinese language education from the perspective of creativity cultivation in the AI era. As machine translation and generative AI increasingly replace parts of everyday communication, foreign language education needs to move beyond functional language skill acquisition and focus on fostering human-centered cognitive abilities such as divergent thinking, cognitive flexibility, and meaning construction.
This research is a conceptual study based on literature review and theoretical model design. It examines Vygotsky's theory of imagination, Guilford's Structure of Intellect model, Torrance's components of creativity, and cognitive linguistic theories of meaning construction. Based on these theoretical foundations, the study interprets foreign language learning as a creative cognitive activity in which learners encounter unfamiliar symbolic systems and reconstruct meaning through their own experiences.
The study analyzes the linguistic characteristics of Chinese, including the spatial iconicity of Chinese characters, tonal distinctions, homophones, morphological productivity, topic-comment discourse structures, ellipsis, and classifier systems. These features, while often perceived as learning burdens, can function as pedagogical resources that stimulate visual imagery, semantic extension, structural reorganization, and contextual inference.
Based on this analysis, the study proposes the IMRS teaching-learning model, which consists of four stages: Imagery, Mapping, Reshaping, and Sculpting. The model conceptualizes Chinese language learning as a cyclical process of sensory representation, semantic extension, structural reorganization, and pragmatic elaboration. It is also linked to Torrance's creativity factors—fluency, flexibility, originality, and elaboration—as criteria for observing learners' creative language performance.
This study is significant in that it transforms the structural difficulties of Chinese into resources for creativity education and highlights the human-centered value of Chinese language education in the AI era. Future research should empirically examine the classroom application of the IMRS model and further develop instructional units, evaluation rubrics, and AI-supported learning designs.