Effects of Language Characteristics on Children's Cognitive Representation of Number: Cross-National Comparisons

Miura, Irene T.; Kim, Chungsoon C.; Chang, Chih-Mei; Okamoto, Yukari

doi:10.2307/1130659

Cited by 139 publications

(65 citation statements)

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“…States. (Miura et al, 1988, 1993; Miura and Okamoto, 2003). Children were asked to represent numbers with cubes representing single units and ten-segmented blocks representing tens.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linguistic influence on mathematical development is specific rather than pervasive: revisiting the Chinese Number Advantage in Chinese and English children

Mark

Dowker

2015

Front. Psychol.

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The relative linguistic transparency of the Asian counting system has been used to explain Asian students’ relative superiority in cross-cultural comparisons of mathematics achievement. To test the validity and extent of linguistic transparency in accounting for mathematical abilities, this study tested Chinese and British primary school children. Children in Hong Kong can learn mathematics using languages with both regular (Chinese) and irregular (English) counting systems, depending on their schools’ medium of instruction. This makes it possible to compare groups with varying levels of exposure to the regular and irregular number systems within the same educational system, curriculum, and cultural environment. The study included three groups of first/second graders and third/fourth graders with varying degrees of experience to the Chinese language and counting systems: no experience (UK; n = 49); spoke Chinese at home and learnt to count in English at school (HK-E; n = 43); spoke Chinese at home and learnt to count in Chinese at school (HK-C; n = 47). They were compared on counting, numerical abilities and place value representation. The present study also measured nonverbal reasoning, attitude toward mathematics, involvement of parents, and extra-curricular mathematics lessons to explore alternative explanations of children’s numeric ability. Results indicated that students in HK-C were better at counting backward and on the numeric skills test than those in HK-E, who were in turn better than the UK students. However, there was no statistical difference in counting forward, place value understanding, and a measure of arithmetic. Our findings add to existent literature suggesting that linguistic transparency does not have an all-pervasive influence on cross-national differences in arithmetic performance.

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“…States. (Miura et al, 1988, 1993; Miura and Okamoto, 2003). Children were asked to represent numbers with cubes representing single units and ten-segmented blocks representing tens.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Linguistic influence on mathematical development is specific rather than pervasive: revisiting the Chinese Number Advantage in Chinese and English children

Mark

Dowker

2015

Front. Psychol.

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“…This linguistic difference makes it more difficult for English-speaking children to understand that teen numbers are composed of a ten and some ones (Ho & Fuson, 1998;Miura et al 1988). It also makes it more difficult to learn the advanced make-a-ten methods of single-digit addition and subtraction that are taught to first graders in China and other East Asian countries (Fuson & Kwon, 1992a;Geary et al, 1993;Murata, 2004;Murata & Fuson, 2001 and that depend on this understanding.…”

Section: Language Supports or Issuesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Thus, one says 4562 as four thousand five hundred sixty-two rather than as six ten (60) as in Chinese. This makes it more difficult for children speaking English to understand the quantities in 2-digit numbers as tens and ones (Miura et al 1988;Fuson & Kwon, 1992b) and therefore to understand computational methods involving 2-digit addition and subtraction. The fact that ordinarily few US children learn the ten-structured methods for addition and subtracting described above also means that many more are dependent on single-digit methods that do not involve ten when finding single-digit sums or differences within multi-digit computations.…”

Section: Language Issues In Understanding Place Value Notationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cross-cultural issues in linguistic, visual-quantitative, and written-numeric supports for mathematical thinking

Fuson¹,

2009

ZDM Mathematics Education

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An in-depth analysis of the major early numerical aspects (single-digit and multidigit addition and subtraction) in a representative Chinese textbook series and a US textbook series (Math Expressions) with major East Asian components illustrated how linguistic issues create different teaching and learning tasks for the same mathematical topic and how additional meaning-making supports may be needed in the US. Analyses of multidigit methods in several East Asian textbooks revealed a wide range of written-numeric support of the steps in these operations. Coherence and learning paths in both programs were identified. A framework that identifies elements of a coherent learning path of meaning-making supports is proposed to facilitate future cross-cultural analyses.

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“…Differences in arithmetical skills (Miura et al, 1988;Fuson and Kwon, 1992), such as borrowing and carrying and math processing (Moeller et al, 2015) have been observed in Chinese/English comparisons as well as across other languages. Furthermore, there is some indication that individual differences demonstrated within a given linguistic context must be considered when investigating students' mathematical abilities.…”

Section: Language Influences On Math Performancementioning

confidence: 99%

Individual Differences in Fourth-Grade Math Achievement in Chinese and English

McClung

Arya

2018

Front. Educ.

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Language has been widely acknowledged as a determining factor in mathematical achievement. Less understood, however, is the relationship between students' language and their performance on tests of mathematics when taking into consideration the presence of mathematical difficulties. We investigated the effects of two different language systems, Chinese and English, on the mathematical performance of fourth-grade (or age equivalent) students (N = 23,220) with varying levels of demonstrated mathematical and reading ability. For this investigation, we used a subset of the 2011 Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study (PIRLS) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) from students who were tested in Chinese or English in nine countries. Findings from hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) analyses revealed that the main effect of language on mathematical performance remained significant once variables for mathematical ability were added to the model. Further, significant language-by-mathematical ability interactions were observed when controlling for country, gender, maternal education, and age. Thus, the effect of language on mathematical performance may be especially salient in the presence of mathematical difficulties. Implications of these findings include the need for further investigations of language and its effects on mathematical performance for Chinese-and English-speaking students in order to clarify how this relationship may vary within specific language populations.

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Effects of Language Characteristics on Children's Cognitive Representation of Number: Cross-National Comparisons

Cited by 139 publications

References 0 publications

Linguistic influence on mathematical development is specific rather than pervasive: revisiting the Chinese Number Advantage in Chinese and English children

Linguistic influence on mathematical development is specific rather than pervasive: revisiting the Chinese Number Advantage in Chinese and English children

Cross-cultural issues in linguistic, visual-quantitative, and written-numeric supports for mathematical thinking

Individual Differences in Fourth-Grade Math Achievement in Chinese and English

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