Impact of spoken language on ability to do math?

[cattiechaos]

I recently came across an interesting book that devoted a chapter to the impact of language on learning math. It didn't come as a surprise to me that the author slated Chinese (and other Asian) students as having a natural advantage in math, because of the language they learn it in.

Comments

[jess_faraday]

I *wish* our (California) school district believed in rote memorization. Instead, they make the kids learn unbelievably stupid and complex ways of doing simple things (like double-digit addition and subtraction), and confuse them to the point that when you show them "carry the one," they act like you've just used magic.

But rant aside, as a native English speaker, I studied Arabic for four years, and found that memorizing the logical system of roots and patterns made my thought processes more mathematical. I would buy that having a logical system built into one's native language would make learning the logical systems of arithmetic easier.

But I think if you look at math education around the world, you'll find more of an advantage comes from the developmental level of the country, and the importance that that particular country gives its educational system. this 2009 study, for example, shows the United States students being handily outpaced by Korean and Chinese students, but also by those in Scandinavian countries--countries which place high importance on public education. (Also Korean and Chinese are very different, but I didn't need to tell you that =)

[cattiechaos]

I think I know what you mean - I attended a seminar about "Singaporean math" and it was ridiculously convoluted...

Thank you for your insight, and the handy study! One question - how exactly are Arabic numbers translated into English? If you wanted to do 12 + 15, for example, would the process be similar to the English-speaking one or the Chinese-speaking one that was illustrated in the post?

[nachtebuch]

This amuses me because I am exactly one of those people raised in the Singaporean education system. What exactly was the seminar on "Singaporean math" about?

[cattiechaos]

I will try to explain what I was thought, please bear with me!

I will use the example 16 + 27 = ?

16 plus 4 is twenty.
27 plus 3 is thirty.

(The objective thus far is to get our 16 and 27 into a ten-based number.)

So now we have fifty.

Now we must subtract the 4 that we added to 16 and the 3 that we added to thirty. Fifty minus seven is 43. 16 + 27 is 43.

[cattiechaos]

Guh, "taught", not "thought"! Goodness :P

[nachtebuch]

LOL it's fine. HMM. I do remember that method being brought up in class, but mostly we were taught to do such additions using normal diagrammatic methods. Assuming it is normal. Like:

(1)
1 6
+ 2 7
______
4 3

Sorry about the crappy 'diagram'. The bracketed 1 represents the 10 that spills over into the tens column.

Please tell me this is how people do math in other countries around the world. Or I will feel like I have been cheated and deceived ;_;

Unless, of course, the method you presented is a way of calculating these things purely by mental effort. In which case, I'm not surprised if it was indeed taught as a method of mental calculation: those things use the strangest tricks. Although it is said that the most effective method is by first learning the abacus: apparently, those things really aid mental calculation.

I only have my mom's testimony on that, though. Apparently my brother is tons better than me at math because he was trained in the abacus and in mental sums. I preferred the piano. Hehe.

[nachtebuch]

Ah crap, the diagram screwed up. Hope you get the point.

[cattiechaos]

No worries, I get the diagram - and that's exactly how I learned it in the United States! I'm not sure about other areas of the world, though XD

Yes, the method I mentioned was strictly for mental math - which the American system really does not place enough emphasis on. For us, it's rote memorization and flashcards, although now everyone just uses a calculator, even for the simplest arithmetic.

Piano > abacus in my book! :D

[jomas_45]

This is how I do maths in my head, but I had to figure it out for myself. In NZ, we get taught 'carry the one'.

In NZ, I've noticed that the asian children aren't necessarily better at maths than the NZ children, it's just that their English skills are so abysmal that maths becomes the easiest subject for them.

[cattiechaos]

"...their English skills are so abysmal that maths becomes the easiest subject for them."

How unfortunate! It's really sad to hear that. Is there an ESL class or maybe a buddy system so they can be helped out? It's really not a problem where I live because mainly get Japanese exchange students, and we have a very large Japanese population so it's a lot easier to help them.

[jomas_45]

Oh yes, it's just that they tend to come over after learning American English at school in their home country, and NZ English is so different, as it's based mostly on British English, that they have problems understanding us. There was a whole block of classrooms at my school dedicated to ESOL language.

I don't think there was a majority of any one country though, so they were always learning English from people who didn't speak their language, which is harder.

[cattiechaos]

Wow, I've never tried using it for multiplication before! That's brilliant - I can see it being really helpful, so long as you trust yourself not to make little mistakes. Thanks for all your input, I appreciate it.

[conuly]

And I'd do that one using factors (or, since nobody taught me that term until I started doing it on my own, "reducing").

16 x 5 is the same as 8 x 10 = 80!

It works well with bigger numbers as well - just find the factors and rearrange until you move from a tricky problem (anything with a 7) to an easier problem (anything with a 10, 5, or 2 if you can swing it!)

[conuly]

Which is actually a pretty efficient way of doing math in your head. It's obviously not going to work on paper very well, and if you have another way of doing mental math that works better for you, any decent math teacher will let you use YOUR method instead. (Mind, some teachers suck. I had one who got very upset when I used factors to do multiplication, even though it's obviously the superior method.)

In my head, I'd use a variation of that method. I'd say "16 and 27. Well, 27 and 3 is 30, so it's 13 and 30, which is 43." When I'm in the store, that's a lot faster than thinking "Okay, six plus seven... carry the one..." and I'm less likely to make a silly mistake.

[akibare]

Agreed here. I might do "16 and 27 is like 16 and 30, then remove the three."

But most importantly, in a STORE you don't need to care about the details, just round up always and you'll never be short of money, which is the main thing! :D

Of course I always have a pencil and some paper in my pocket, so for those rare occasions when I do have to bust out the long division, I'm prepared. It's gotten me some odd looks though.

(And now I have a smartphone. You'd think I'd remember there's a calculator on it, but surprisingly I tend to forget about that!)