Foreign Language Literacy through Fanfiction Writing and Text Mining

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach on the use of text mining as a support for foreign language literacy. The mining tool used in our research is able to extract recurring terms from a given text and represent them in the form of a graph. Such graphical representation can help students to focus on specific features of the text and create narratives in a foreign language. We carried out an experiment to investigate how foreign language learners deal with the process of creating fanfiction narratives by using the mining tool. Most of the students that participated in the experiment stated that the graphs provided by the mining tool helped them to reflect and create a clearer picture of the stories they were about to write.