The Language of Mathematics: Investigating the Ways Language Skills Count for Children’s Mathematical Cognition

• In Event: Mathematics Instruction for Students With Disabilities

Abstract

This study sought to determine how language influenced mathematical cognition from first through third grade in a diverse sample of children. Study participants included 150 linguistically and ethnically diverse children attending two Title 1 schools in a large urban center in the northeast United States. Latent growth modeling in a structural equation modeling framework (Bollen & Curran, 2006) was used to evaluate the relationship between language skills and students’ levels and rates of growth in mathematical cognition (i.e., symbolic number skills, calculation skills, data analysis and probability, algebra, geometry) between grades 1 and 3. Preliminary findings suggest that language skills are important particularly for higher-order domains of mathematical cognition for both language minority learners and native English speakers.

Authors

• Rose K. Vukovic, New York University

• Nonie K. Lesaux, Harvard University