Determinants of Khmer-Vietnamese Bilingual Education Effectiveness: A Multi-Layer Ecosystem Perspective from the Mekong Delta, Vietnam

<ns5:p>Background Bilingual education is increasingly understood as a socio-educational system shaped by learner, instructional, and institutional conditions. In multilingual contexts such as Vietnam, the effectiveness of Khmer-Vietnamese bilingual education (KhVBE) depends not only on linguistic competence but also on broader instructional and institutional processes. Purpose This study develops and empirically examines an ecosystem-informed framework to assess how learner-level, instructional, and contextual factors are associated with implementation-level perceptions of Khmer-Vietnamese bilingual education effectiveness. Methods Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 269 administrators and teachers across three Mekong Delta provinces. Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was employed to examine a multi-layered model incorporating learner-related, instructional, and contextual determinants of KhVBE effectiveness. Findings Results indicate that information channels emerged as the strongest predictor of implementation-level KhVBE effectiveness, while Khmer language ability and professional development showed smaller but significant positive associations. By contrast, internal learner factors, Vietnamese language ability, contextual-institutional conditions, community factors, and family factors did not show significant direct effects within the tested model. Implications The study contributes to bilingual education scholarship by proposing an ecosystem-informed perspective on KhVBE implementation and provides policy-relevant insights for strengthening instructional coordination, heritage-language integration, and institutional communication systems in minority education contexts.</ns5:p>