A Model of Mother Tongue-Based Bilingual Education in Vietnam: Achievements and Lessons Learnt

Abstract

Education practices in ethnic minority areas in Vietnam with regional and ethnic differences influence its educational development. In particular, the language difference is a factor because the language used in teaching and learning is Vietnamese, not the mother tongue. Therefore, the mother tongue-based bilingual education model was developed to provide quick and convenient access to Vietnamese (the nation’s official language) and knowledge for students in ethnic minority areas. Its approach is to use the ethnic students’ mother tongues as the initial foundation in their first schooling years. The outstanding results of the successfully tested model have contributed to the improvement of the quality of ethnic minority education in Vietnam.