The Practice and Exploration of the Chinese-Myanmar Bilingual Teaching Model in Primary Chinese Language Education in Myanmar

Abstract

Myanmar and China share a deep-rooted “brotherly bond,” with some ethnic groups sharing common origins and recognizing a shared language and culture. Additionally, as a key node country along the Belt and Road Initiative, Myanmar has seen an annual growth rate of 23% in demand for Chinese language education (Myanmar Ministry of Education, 2024). However, traditional monolingual teaching models face challenges such as cultural differences and language transfer effects. This study is based on a four-month bilingual education research project at the primary school department of Yangon Jasmine International School (pseudonym) in Myanmar, utilizing participatory observation (48 bilingual classes) and teaching experiments to explore the cultural interaction mechanisms in Chinese-Myanmar bilingual classrooms. The findings reveal: In elementary Chinese education, students' Chinese proficiency levels are generally lower than those of their peers in China, accounting for 70% of the sample; during cultural symbol negotiation, Myanmar-Chinese mixed sentences frequently appear (accounting for 37.2% of classroom discourse); cultural symbol barriers exist between Myanmar and Chinese cultures, such as students using the People's Education Press textbooks not recognizing poets like Li Bai and Meng Haoran. In response to this situation, the study proposes teaching improvement strategies, including the “China-Myanmar Shared Symbols” unit approach and a phased method for refining China-Myanmar mixed sentence structures.