What Are the Mathematical Benefits of a Language-Friendly Pedagogy?

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 13
  In Roundtable Session: STEM Education in a Globalized World: International Perspectives on Critical Teacher Education for Diversity

Abstract

Perspectives
It is only recently that school stakeholders have become aware of the importance of languages and cultures in education as a dynamic and fluid process and the essential role they play in learning (Author 4 et al. 2020). Language-friendly pedagogies are based on the concept of interdependence (Cummins, 1991) which implies that the transition from one language to another allows for the positive transfer of skills and concepts and the strengthening of each language.

Objectives and purposes
In this symposium, we aim to move beyond the benefits of a language friendly pedagogy to students’ mathematics and science identities. We propose a discussion on whether a language friendly pedagogy can also promote a deeper understanding of the content of mathematics to all students. Our assumption is that such a pedagogy has the potential to uncover connections between mathematical concepts typically taken for granted in traditional mathematics curricula. As an illustrative example, the concept of slope of a line in the cartesian plan translates into Portuguese as coeficiente angular. These two terms reveal two distinct interpretations of the same mathematical idea: whereas in English the slope is interpreted as a ratio (increase in the y-axis for every unit of the x-axis), in Portuguese it is interpreted as the tangent of the angle between the line and the x-axis. In a language friendly classroom, students have the opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of first-degree functions because (not in spite) of the nuances of each language.

Methods & Data
Throughout the talk, we will share other connections that emerged in an ongoing project with in-service and pre-service mathematics teachers. We invited teachers to engage in language friendly pedagogy while using Binogi, an online platform that provides mathematics and science video content in multiple languages. While 18 in-service teachers implemented the platform in their classes, 25 pre-service teachers planned lessons that could foster mathematics teaching and learning.

Results & scholarly significance of the study
Although data analysis is still ongoing, our participants have shown that language friendly pedagogy through an online digital platform can be incorporated at different stages of a lesson: introducing a new concept, gathering information about students’ experiences and prior knowledge, exploring new strategies and mathematical representations, or concluding a topic unit. They also seem to appreciate having access to new ways of interpreting the content from their own mathematics curriculum. Through a language friendly pedagogy, our participants have begun to recognize that mathematics is produced and communicated in different ways and can be enhanced when the cultural and linguistic diversity of a classroom is fully embraced. The implications of this research provide a glimpse of a new epistemology of mathematics for teacher education, one centered around numeracy as a human practice that exists in social groups.

Authors

• Alexandre Cavalcante, University of Toronto

• Antoinette Gagné, University of Toronto