Background Against the backdrop of the global digital transformation of education, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is profoundly reshaping the instructional ecology of primary school Chinese language education, creating an urgent need to cultivate AI literacy among teachers. Existing research predominantly focuses on generic AI literacy frameworks for educators, lacking a specialized model tailored to the humanistic attributes and pedagogical characteristics of the Chinese language discipline. Furthermore, there is a notable scarcity of appropriate assessment tools. Objective This study aims to develop and preliminarily validate an AI literacy competency model specifically for primary school Chinese language teachers. Methods Grounded in PCK, TPACK, and the UNESCO AI competency framework for teachers, and integrated with primary Chinese language teaching practices, we designed a 32-item questionnaire. An exploratory factor analysis was conducted with a national sample of 104 primary school Chinese language teachers. Results The results revealed that AI literacy for these teachers comprises five factors: (a) Instructional Integration and Innovative Practice Competence, (b) Tool Operation and Foundational Application Skills, (c) Assessment Support and Critical Thinking, (d) Application Awareness and Receptive Attitude, and (e) Ethical and Risk Awareness. The cumulative variance contribution rate reached 73.499%. This five-factor model exhibits good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.972). Conclusion This study enriches the theoretical connotation of subject-specific AI literacy within basic education and provides an evidence-based foundation for enhancing the AI literacy of Chinese language teachers. The five-factor structure constitutes a preliminary framework for AI literacy development, while questionnaire serves as a validated measurement instrument for assessment. The model addresses the current gap in domain-specific AI literacy research and practice.
Han et al. (Fri,) studied this question.