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Because Chinese reading and writing systems are not phonetic, Mandarin Chinese learners must construct six-way mental connections in order to learn new words, linking characters, meanings, and sounds. Little research has focused on the difficulties inherent to each specific component involved in this process, especially within digital learning environments. The present work examines Chinese word acquisition within ASSISTments, an online learning platform traditionally known for mathematics education. Students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions in which researchers manipulated a learning assignment to exclude one of three bi-directional connections thought to be required for Chinese language acquisition (i.e., sound-meaning and meaning-sound). Researchers then examined whether students’ performance differed significantly when the learning assignment lacked sound-character, character-meaning, or meaning-sound connection pairs, and whether certain problem types were more difficult for students than others. Assessment of problems by component type (i.e., characters, meanings, and sounds) revealed support for the relative ease of problems that provided sounds, with students exhibiting higher accuracy with fewer attempts and less need for system feedback when sounds were included. However, analysis revealed no significant differences in word acquisition by condition, as evidenced by next-day post-test scores or pre- to post-test gain scores. Implications and suggestions for future work are discussed.
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Worlds and words: entangling mathematics, language, and context in newcomer classrooms
This work studies mathematics word problems’ use in a classroom of recent immigrants, or newcomers, to a United States public elementary school. I study how word problems foster the recontextualization of mathematical concepts in a lived real- ity experienced by newcomer students in their new cultural and educational setting. In this study’s setting language plays a significant role in the process of meaning-making. I describe how language use in word problems remains intertwined with mathematics instruction. This opens a space for questioning word problems’ purpose and role in multilingual classrooms, and I highlight how the creative process of co-constructing problems’ meaning in this context can expand notions of genre applied to word problems. Throughout I adopt a theorization of translanguaging as a language practice and apply it in problem discussion. This helps probe how language use impacts students’ ways of understanding and utilizing mathematical concepts.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2055419
- PAR ID:
- 10528620
- Publisher / Repository:
- ZDM – Mathematics Education
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ZDM – Mathematics Education
- Volume:
- 55
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 1863-9690
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 1139 to 1150
- Subject(s) / Keyword(s):
- Newcomers Word problems Elementary school Translanguaging Multilingual
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s11858-023-01516-0
