Cross-Cultural Adaptation in International Chinese Teaching: Thai Learners' Classifier Errors and Localized Interventions

Qian Sun

doi:10.70088/a2hnfh27

Authors

Qian Sun Xi'an Shiyou University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.70088/a2hnfh27

Keywords:

international Chinese education, Thai learners, classifier errors, cross-cultural teaching adaptation, localized interventions

Abstract

Against the backdrop of deepening China-Thailand educational cooperation and the global promotion of Chinese language education, during the author's teaching tenure in Thailand (May 2025 - March 2026) at a public high school in Phatthalung Province, classifiers remain a core difficulty for Thai learners due to significant cross-linguistic and cross-cultural differences between Chinese, Thai, and English. This study takes 28 Thai Grade 10 learners (A1 level, taught by the author during the tenure) as the research object, adopting a mixed-methods design (error corpus analysis, pre-test/post-test, semi-structured interviews) over a four-week period (conducted in October-November 2025, within the teaching tenure). The results show that the main errors are overgeneralization of (51.7%), collocation errors (31.0%), and omission (17.3%), caused by the interaction of Sino-Thai cross-linguistic-cultural differences and English cross-linguistic transfer. After intervention with localized strategies (real-object matching + trilingual annotation + interactive quick Q&A), learners' average accuracy significantly increased from 38.5% (SD=8.2) to 62.1% (SD=7.6) (paired sample t-test: t=-12.36, p<0.05), with 80% of learners recognizing the effectiveness of real-object teaching. This study not only provides practical references for Chinese teachers in Southeast Asian public schools under resource-constrained conditions but also enriches the research on cross-cultural adaptation in international Chinese education, offering insights for the localization of second language teaching in cross-border educational cooperation.

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