Mathematics and a Second Language: Teachers Share From Their Experiences

• In Event: Reimagining Mathematics Teaching Quality for K-12 English Language Learners and Latina/o Students

Abstract

A professional development experience involved teachers as students of mathematics through a second language to allow them to experience linguistic challenges similar to those many English Language Learning (ELL) students face. Teachers reflected and shared their insights into the learning of mathematics when presented in an unfamiliar language and the teaching that is required to make the mathematics content comprehensible.
A challenge for mathematics teacher educators is to better prepare teachers for the growing ELL and Latino/a student populations. Reform-oriented classrooms can be linguistically demanding because students are expected to explain solutions, make and describe conjectures, justify conclusions, and present arguments (NCTM, 2000). The 2010 Common Core State Standards (CCSS) places emphasis on student communication with precise explanations. Mosckovich (1999) suggests that the increased expectations for all students to participate in discussions might increase the opportunities for ELL students to participate in mathematical conversations, thus creating an environment that can support both language and conceptual development. Instruction should promote English language development through a natural process in which the focus is not on language per se but on communicating the concepts, processes, and applications of mathematics (Echevarria, Vogt, & Short, 2004). In order to improve the quality of teachers’ preparation for teaching ELL students, professional development should address issues of language and the role that language plays in teaching and learning mathematics (Anhalt, Ondrus, & Horak, 2007).
Twenty-two middle school mathematics teachers from schools with high Latino student populations (82%) participated in two lessons on area and perimeter taught in Chinese as part of a university graduate course. The lessons and class discussions were videotaped and transcribed to capture the teachers’ insights and reflections regarding their participation as students of mathematics taught in a language they did not know. We examined the discussions qualitatively coding for teachers’ explicit realizations for necessary changes in current instructional practices and noticing of effective pedagogical strategies with respect to teaching and learning mathematics in a second language.
Participation helped tie theoretical aspects of using effective second language strategies and mathematical modeling for teaching ELL students. Teachers’ discussed their own learning of mathematics content while learning a new language, therefore, making personal connections about learning to their own instructional practices. The role of student grouping is also an important strategy that they found to be critical due to their own experiences in working with each other knowing that some were able to understand more of the mathematics than others, although they had approximately equal understanding of Chinese. Because of this experience, they were able to understand how visual cues, concrete modeling, and explicit use of mathematical language, are valuable to both the learning of the mathematics and the language development. Realizations such as these can be influential to teachers’ current teaching practices to include strategies for meaningful instruction for all students. Consideration for what constitutes teacher quality must include ongoing professional development in issues of learning mathematics in a second language, a reality for many students.

Author

• Cynthia O. Anhalt, The University of Arizona