Explain this
Teaching Mathematics in Multilingual Classrooms
How the publisher describes it:
“The author captures three inter-related dilemmas that lie at the heart of teaching mathematics in multilingual classrooms: code-switching, mediation, and transparency. She provides a sharp analysis and strong theoretical grounding, pulling together research related to the relationship between language and mathematics, communicating mathematics, and mathematics in bi-/multilingual settings and offers a direct challenge to dominant research on communication in mathematics classrooms.”
Review by Heather McLeay
In brief:
This is a scholarly work describing an extensive study of teachers' practices in contemporary South Africa. It will be an invaluable contribution to the body of research in this field. It is also a good read and provides some useful tips for all of us.
“A clear account of the problems in the classrooms of multilingual South Africa”
Today’s classrooms present teachers with many challenges, just one of these is the linguistic ability of pupils. Ever since Pimm1 reminded us that Spike Milligan ‘spoke it (mathematics) like a native’, mathematics educators have tried to address the interrelationship between language and mathematics. Much has been written concerning language in the mathematics classroom but this book now addresses the problem of teaching in the multilingual classroom where the first language is not the language of instruction (referred to in the text as LoLT - Language of Learning and Teaching).
Jill Adler gives us a clear account of the problems in the classrooms of multilingual South Africa. She describes three dilemmas for teachers in multilingual classrooms:
- the dilemma of code switching, when learners and or teachers switch from the language of instruction to the first language,
- the dilemma of mediation, when teachers move towards the learner’s preferred language, and
- the dilemma of transparency, when the teacher spends time explicitly teaching mathematical language.
The first dilemma of code switching is pertinent to multi- and bilingual classrooms. The second two of these dilemmas, mediation and transparency, occur as dilemmas in every mathematics classroom and as such this book is of interest to all mathematics teachers. Mediation presents as the dilemma of when to move away from ‘baby talk’. For example, vocabulary such as ‘timesing’, ‘sharing’ and ‘diamond’, should perhaps be corrected to the mathematical vocabulary of ‘multiplying’, ‘dividing’ and ‘rhombus’. Transparency presents as that aspect of teaching where it is necessary give pupils the correct ‘jargon’, such as ‘reflex’ for angles between 270°ree; and 360°ree;, or new vocabulary such as ‘consecutive’.
Many of the situations described in this book are relevant to all teachers, not just those who work in multilingual classrooms. Indeed research in multilingual classrooms can highlight topics which may give rise to problems in monolingual classrooms. Adler provides an example of a child becoming confused in a trigonometry lesson by the use of the words ‘adjacent’ and ‘opposite’. The child knew these words in the context of describing types of angles, not lengths. Such a situation could arise and cause problems for a child in any classroom when learning about the tangent ratio.
Code-switching occurs only when the teacher and the pupil share a common language which is not the LoLT . Typically, in South Africa, the teacher introduces a topic in English and then gives further explanation in the learner’s first language. This may be seen as a resource and not as a problem, affording the learner deeper understanding. However, it does detract from the desired outcome of improving the learner’s second language.
Three chapters in the book are given over to specific case studies with vignettes of three teachers working, each chapter relates to one of the three dilemmas. These are detailed and provide interesting descriptions of these teachers' practices and dilemmas. This is a scholarly work describing an extensive study of teachers' practices in contemporary South Africa. It will be an invaluable contribution to the body of research in this field. It is also a good read and provides some useful tips for all of us.
Heather McLeay • School of Education, University of Wales Bangor
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Springer (30 Jun 2001)
Language English
ISBN-10: 0792370791
ISBN-13: 978-0792370796
Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 16 x 1.8 cm
