ORCID Identifiers
Document Type
Article
Source of Publication
Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives
Publication Date
12-1-2017
Abstract
This paper presents a study of Emirati university students learning mathematics in a second language (English). The study focused on students' responses to mathematical word problems in different versions: simpler/more complex versions of the problem in English; an Arabic translation of the problem; and the addition of a picture to support the text of the problem. Our findings suggest that neither language simplification nor pictures significantly affect students' comprehension and performance on word problem assessments; the lexical and syntactic features of the word problems have little effect on their understanding and ability to answer the questions presented to them. In addition, evidence suggests that there is no first-language (Arabic) advantage when answering these assessments. These findings are in line with previous studies that found no evidence that simplifying the language of mathematics tests had a significant positive effect on student performance. Implications on the appropriate theoretical perspectives to use when studying the relationship of language and mathematics learning are discussed. In addition, practical recommendations are presented for instructors and professors in ‘globalist’ multilingual classrooms (Barwell, 2003).
DOI Link
ISSN
Publisher
Emerald
Volume
14
First Page
3
Last Page
23
Disciplines
Education
Scopus ID
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
Causapin, Mark and Groombridge, Timothy, "The effects of language simplification and pictures on the ability of Emirati university students to comprehend and solve mathematics word problems" (2017). All Works. 3423.
https://zuscholars.zu.ac.ae/works/3423
Indexed in Scopus
yes
Open Access
yes
Open Access Type
Gold: This publication is openly available in an open access journal/series