Revisiting Early Research on Early Language and Number Names

Judit Moschkovich

doi:10.12973/eurasia.2017.00802a

Full Text (PDF)

Judit Moschkovich ¹ ^*

More Detail

¹ The University of California, Santa Cruz, USA^* Corresponding Author

Abstract

This article addresses the relationship between language and mathematical thinking by reconsidering early work on language and number names. The analysis examines theoretical assumptions, later empirical data, and critiques of those early studies. Researchers, practitioners, and curriculum designers in mathematics education working in multilingual settings need to develop an updated view of this early work on number names across languages, carefully considering what early research actually showed, how it has been critiqued, and how to theoretically frame claims about language and mathematical thinking. The analysis presented here suggests several ways to frame such an updated perspective, including work on linguistic relativity and ecological approaches to the relationship between language and mathematical thinking.

Keywords

cross-cultural research
language
mathematical thinking
multilingual classrooms

License

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Article Type: Research Article

EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed, 2017, Volume 13, Issue 7b, 4143-4156

https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00802a

Publication date: 21 Jun 2017

Article Views: 1858

Article Downloads: 708

Open Access References How to cite this article

References

Alsawaie, O. N. (2004). Language influence on children's cognitive number representation. School Science and Mathematics, 104(3), 105-111.
Boroditsky, L. (2000). Metaphoric structuring: Understanding time through spatial metaphors. Cognition, 75(1), 1-28.
Boroditsky, L. (2001). Does language shape thought? Mandarin and English speakers' conceptions of time. Cognitive Psychology, 43(1), 1-22.
Boroditsky, L., & Gaby, A. (2010). Remembrances of times East: Absolute spatial representations of time in an Australian aboriginal community. Psychological Science, 21(11), 1635-1639.
Brenner, M. (1994). A communication framework for mathematics: Exemplary instruction for culturally and linguistically diverse students. In B. McLeod (Ed.), Language and learning: Educating linguistically diverse students (pp. 233-268). Albany: SUNY Press.
Brysbaert, M., Fias, W., & Noel, M. P. (1998). The Whorfian hypothesis and numerical cognition: Is twenty-four processed in the same way as four-and-twenty? Cognition, 66(1), 51-77.
Cavanagh, S. (2005). Math: The not-so-universal language. Education Week, July. Retrieved August 2, 2009 from http://www.barrow.k12.ga.us/esol/Math_The_Not_So_Universal_Language.pdf.
Cazden C. (1986). Classroom discourse: The language of teaching and learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
Civil, M. (2002). Culture and mathematics: A community approach. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 23(2), 133-148.
Cole, M. (1996a) Cognitive development and formal schooling: The evidence from cross-cultural research. In L. Moll (Ed.), Vygotsky and education: Instructional implications and applications of sociohistorical psychology (pp. 319-348). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Cole, M. (1996b). Cultural psychology: A once and future discipline. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Correa, C. A., Perry, M., Sims, L. M., Miller, K. F., & Fang, G. (2008). Connected and culturally embedded beliefs: Chinese and US teachers talk about how their students best learn mathematics. Teaching and Teacher Education, 24(1), 140-153.
Cross, C. T., Woods, T. A., & Schweingruber, H. (2009). Mathematics learning in early childhood: Paths toward excellence and equity. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.
Crowhurst, M. (1994). Language and learning across the curriculum. Scarborough, Ontario: Allyn and Bacon.
Dowker, A. (1998). Individual differences in normal arithmetical development. In C. Donlan (Ed.), The development of mathematical skills (pp. 275–302). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
Dowker, A., Bala, S., & Lloyd, D. (2008). Linguistic influences on mathematical development: How important is the transparency of the counting system? Philosophical Psychology, 21(4), 523-538.
Fuson, K. C., & Kwon, Y. (1992a). Korean children’s single-digit addition and subtraction: Numbers structured by ten. Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 23, 148–165.
Fuson, K. C., & Kwon, Y. (1992b). Korean children’s understanding of multidigit addition and subtraction. Child Development, 63, 491–506.
Gay, J., & Cole, M. (1967). The new mathematics and an old culture: A study of learning among the Kpelle of Liberia. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
Geary, D. C., Bow-Thomas, C. C., Liu, F., & Siegler, R. S. (1996). Development of arithmetical competencies in Chinese and American children: Influence of age, language, and schooling. Child Development, 67, 2002–2044.
Gee, J. (1996). Social linguistics and literacies: Ideology in Discourses (3rd ed.). London: The Falmer Press.
Glick, J. (1975). Cognitive development in cross-cultural perspective. Review of Child Development Research, 4, 595-654.
González, N. (1995). Processual approaches to multicultural education. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 31 (2), 234-244.
González, N., Andrade, R., Civil, M., & Moll, L.C. (2001). Bridging funds of distributed knowledge: Creating zones of practices in mathematics. Journal of Education for Students Placed at Risk, 6, 115-132.
Gutiérrez, K., & Rogoff, B. (2003). Cultural ways of learning: Individual traits or repertoires of practice? Educational Researcher, 32(5), 19-25.
Gutiérrez, K., Baquedano-Lopez, P., & Alvarez, H. (2001). Literacy as hybridity: Moving beyond bilingualism in urban classrooms. In M. de la Luz Reyes & J. Halcon (Eds.), The best for our children: Critical perspectives on literacy for Latino students (pp. 122-141). New York: Teachers College Press.
Hakuta, K., & McLaughlin, B. (1996). Bilingualism and second language learning: Seven tensions that define research. In D. Berliner & R. C. Calfe (Eds.), Handbook of Educational Psychology (pp. 603-621). New York: Macmillan.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1978). Sociolinguistics aspects of mathematical education. In M. Halliday, The social interpretation of language and meaning (pp. 194-204). London: University Park Press.
Kimura, K., Wagner, K., & Barner, D. (2013). Two for one? Transfer of conceptual content in bilingual number word learning. Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society, 2734-2739.
Lee, C. (2003). Why we need to rethink race and ethnicity in educational research. Educational Researcher, 32 (5), 3–5.
Leung, F., & Park, K. (2002). Competent students, competent teachers? International Journal of Educational Research, 37(2), 113-129.
Lucy J. (1996). The scope of linguistic relativity: An analysis and review of empirical research. In Gumperz & Levinson (Eds.), Rethinking linguistic relativity (pp. 37-69). Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press.
Lucy, J. A. (1997). Linguistic relativity. Annual Review of Anthropology, 26(1), 291-312.
Ma, L. (1999). Knowing and teaching elementary mathematics: Teachers’ understanding of fundamental mathematics in China and the United States. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.
Mehan, H. (1979). Learning lessons: Social organization in the classroom. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Miller, K., Kelly, M., & Zhou, X. (2005). Learning mathematics in China and the United States: Cross-cultural insights into the nature and course of mathematical development. In J. I. D. Campbell (Ed.), Handbook of mathematical cognition (pp. 163-178). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.
Miura, I. (1987). Mathematics achievement as a function of language. Journal of Educational Psychology, 79(1), 79-82.
Miura, I. T., & Okamoto, Y. (1989). Comparisons of US and Japanese first graders' cognitive representation of number and understanding of place value. Journal of Educational Psychology, 81(1), 109.
Miura, I. T., & Okamoto, Y. (2003). Language supports for mathematics understanding and performance. In A.J. Baroody and A. Dowker (Eds.), The development of arithmetic concepts and skills: Constructing adaptive expertise (pp. 229-242). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
Miura, I. T., Kim, C. C., Chang, C-M. & Okamoto, Y. (1988). Effects of language characteristics on children’s cognitive representation of numbers: Cross-national comparisons. Child Development, 59, 1445-1450.
Miura, I. T., Okamoto, Y., Kim, C. C., Steere, M., & Fayol, M. (1993). First graders' cognitive representation of number and understanding of place value: Cross-national comparisons: France, Japan, Korea, Sweden, and the United States. Journal of Educational Psychology, 85(1), 24.
Miura, I. T., Okamoto, Y., Kim, C. C., Chang, C. M., Steere, M., & Fayol, M. (1994). Comparisons of children's cognitive representation of number: China, France, Japan, Korea, Sweden, and the United States. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 17(3), 401-411.
Moll, L., Amanti, C., Neff, D., & González, N. (1992). Funds of knowledge for teaching: Using a qualitative approach to connect homes and classrooms. Theory into Practice, 31, 132-141.
Moschkovich, J. N. (1999). Supporting the participation of English language learners in mathematical discussions. For the Learning of Mathematics, 19(1), 11-19.
Moschkovich, J. N. (2002). A situated and sociocultural perspective on bilingual mathematics learners. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 4(2&3), 189-212.
Moschkovich, J. N. (2007). Examining mathematical Discourse practices, For the Learning of Mathematics, 27(1), 24-30.
Moschkovich, J. N. (2015). Academic literacy in mathematics for English learners. Journal of Mathematical Behavior, 40, 43-62.
Muldoon, K., Simms, V., Towse, J., Menzies, V., & Yue, G. (2011). Cross-cultural comparisons of 5-year-olds’ estimating and mathematical ability. Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, 42(4), 669-681.
Murata, A. (2004). Paths to learning ten-structured understanding of teen sums: Addition solution methods of Japanese Grade 1 students. Cognition and Instruction, 22(2), 185–218.
Murata, A. (2008). Mathematics teaching and learning as a mediating process: The case of tape diagrams. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 10(4), 374-406.
Ng, S. S. N., & Rao, N. (2010). Chinese number words, culture, and mathematics learning. Review of Educational Research 80(2), 180-206.
O’Halloran, K. (1999). Towards a systemic functional analysis of multisemiotic mathematics texts. Semiotica, 124(1/2), 1-29.
Pimm, D. (1987). Speaking mathematically: Communication in mathematics classrooms. London: Routledge.
Sarnecka, B. W., & Carey, S. (2008). How counting represents number: What children must learn and when they learn it. Cognition, 108, 662-674.
Stevenson, H. W., & Stigler, J. W. (1992). The learning gap: Why our schools are failing and what we can learn from Japanese and Chinese education. New York: Touchstone.
Towse, J., & Saxton, M. (1998). Mathematics across national boundaries: Cultural and linguistic perspectives on numerical competence. In C. Donlan (Ed.), The development of mathematical skills (pp. 129-150). Hove, UK: Psychology Press.

How to cite this article

APA

Moschkovich, J. (2017). Revisiting Early Research on Early Language and Number Names. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 13(7b), 4143-4156. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00802a

Vancouver

Moschkovich J. Revisiting Early Research on Early Language and Number Names. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2017;13(7b):4143-56. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00802a

AMA

Moschkovich J. Revisiting Early Research on Early Language and Number Names. EURASIA J Math Sci Tech Ed. 2017;13(7b), 4143-4156. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00802a

Chicago

Moschkovich, Judit. "Revisiting Early Research on Early Language and Number Names". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education 2017 13 no. 7b (2017): 4143-4156. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00802a

Harvard

Moschkovich, J. (2017). Revisiting Early Research on Early Language and Number Names. Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, 13(7b), pp. 4143-4156. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00802a

MLA

Moschkovich, Judit "Revisiting Early Research on Early Language and Number Names". Eurasia Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education, vol. 13, no. 7b, 2017, pp. 4143-4156. https://doi.org/10.12973/eurasia.2017.00802a