Language and Math

[Saide Current Awareness] Saide Current Awareness Service 2013 09 30.

Jenny Louw.www.saide.org.za. [online] [Accessed 30/9/13].

Saide, the South African Institute for Distance Education, is a non-governmental organization based in Johannesburg but conducting projects throughout South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa. Saide's task is to contribute to the development of new models of open and distance education practice, that accord with and take forward the values, principles, and goals of the evolving education systems in the Southern African region. It has also paid particular attention to the appropriate use of technology in education and most recently established a Kenya-based initiative, OER Africa, to promote the development and sharing of OER on the African continent.

I received my usual Saide awarenes articles on what is going on in and around the teaching halls of our country. For those who do not know about this site, you can subscribe by clicking on the link, it really is a handy place where all the up to date education ramblings-on are voiced.

A very interesting topic surfaced today and I thought it prudent to list it on my blog for those who are interested in reading it. The topic is:

Where do language and maths meet for young children.pdf by Professor Elizabeth Henning

The Questions (she asks):

1. Does it matter in which language one starts to learn mathematics?

2. What is 'mother tongue' teaching?

3. How about starting to learn in one language and then switching by grade 3-4?

4. How many people in South Africa count in their first language (mother tongue)?

5. In which languages are Grade 1 children tested on the big public school annual national assessment tests the ANA's)?
6. Is early multilingualism an asset for learning numeracy (oops, and literacy)?

It is important to answer these and challenge these questions because the District and ANA results are shocking at the Practical School I am at (but nevertheless show a marginal improvement). 

Professor Henning  furthermore answers these questions under the heading 'Early Responses':

1. "It matters, because it has to be consistent. Neuronal connections are formed from different parts of the brain and have a safe route of connection that remains stable. It's like switching traffic rules on the road when there is no consistency in the medium that has to be decoded by the young brain. Grade 1 children have to encode and decode the very challenging alphabet and get to know the small sound parts of a language, link them to letter groups, and then sneak off to another part of the brain for a preview of what it may mean. That's for alphabetical stuff. Now what about the signs of numeracy and other visual signs that all need to be recognised and processed in the brain simultaneously and at great speed. Together with the language. Come on - why make it more diffucult by fooling around with language code-switching? Young children's learning is not a social experiment or an ideological platform." I agree but why are the gurus still maintaining this path if evidence such as the ANA results proves that language switching has a negative rather than a positive effect? Who will stop this madness? 
2. ....."Mother tongue is what these kids see and breathe and live (with English in the background media). They [Afrikaans kids] learn to read faster than most other kids in the country because the sound and grammar obstacles are fewer. So mathematics in language form is more easily read than in, say English, or French. They [Afrikaans kids] also do not count in English, while doing maths in Afrikaans! Specific areas in their brains are activated repeatedly and consistently and neural connections are fastened....I support the right of the child to learn more than any of the political issues." What a weird and wonderful world we live in; and I always thought that acquiring a language at a very young age is the right thing to do, now I learn that the drawbacks in certain areas are devastating...
3. "To switch from one language to another requires many more parts of the brain to be active and to make connections at great speed. It is a heavy load. For most children it is just too much. They end up confused in a world of conflicting signs and symbols. Some manage to get out of the conflict zone. Most don't. They fail dismally in the learning of mathematics (early learning blocks in a foundation have no other place than in the foundation.)" Halleluja, so true and logical and...the ANA results show that these learning blocks are missing...
4. "I wonder. Those who I encounter have to be asked to do it. English seems to be the default counting language and language of mathematics. What now?" Indeed...
5. "All the kids are tested in English." True...and are not assisted and prepared for the test, such as normal in a classroom...
6. "I think the jury is more split than ever before. A leading world cognitive neuroscientist says its a burden. Sjoe, 'worried face'." Prof, if you're worried then I have little hope of South Africa turning math statistics around...The question remains 'what are we to do as future teachers in an educational system that promotes things that don't work for Afrika?' That is open for debate....