Mathematical learning and language use: Perspectives from bilingual students in a context of problem solving

Abstract

The migrant movements throughout the world and the politics around language diversity in many countries have promoted an increasing presence of multilingualism in the mathematics classrooms. There are students who face the challenge of learning mathematics in a language that is not their home language. To further understand the joint learning of mathematics and language, we need to reflect on the processes that the students develop when solving mathematical tasks, and to analyze how they see their involvement in such processes. The main focus of this PhD study is on the language and mathematical practices by Spanish and English bilingual students in California, United States. In this context, the current policy of “English only” does not facilitate the use of the students' languages in the classroom, except for the case of those who are English dominant. Our assumption is that obstacles to the use of the students' languages may become obstacles to the learning of mathematics. The PhD study attempts to examine diverse resolutions of mathematical tasks by bilingual students who are in the process of learning the language of instruction. We also consider the perspectives from these bilingual students on the use of their two languages in the resolution of the tasks. To achieve these goals, individual questionnaires with four mathematical activities were issued to students of a middle and a high school. Complementary task-based interviews with students were videotaped and audio recorded. Several findings have been obtained as regards to connections between the language use and the mathematical practice. It has been documented, for instance, that the students report the use of their two languages for either the oral register or the written one. Moreover, the analysis of the visual mode in the statements of the tasks is particularly interesting as it informs of the attribution of mathematical meanings. On the other hand, the students in the sample do not say to experience the combined use of their languages as a difficulty or an obstacle. Many of them do not even report the use of English when they indeed do it while writing short comments. This leads to one of the major conclusions: the phenomenon of invisibility that frames the students' experience of their language use during their involvement in individual mathematical practices.