Time: 16:00 to 18:00
Location: Sheffield Hallam University - City Campus Room 17 Floor 4 Charles Street BuildingSheffieldS1 1WB
Speaker: Nora Kühme from The University of Münster

The relationship between language proficiency and mathematical achievement is proposed by a wide range of empirical studies and points to the contemporary relevance for research on the topic in mathematics education. The interdependency of mathematics and language implies that on the one hand students have to learn mathematical language for the development of mathematical thinking, while on the other they learn through language. The language of schooling involves a high cognitive demand, which results in formal characteristics such as decontextualization, explicitness and complexity. Thus, students learning the language of instruction as a second language or with lower language proficiency are disadvantaged at school.

In my research, I focus on language proficiency in primary mathematics education. My interest is on verbal and nonverbal communication of children working with learning materials such as wooden cubes, Dienes Material etc. The study contains a Mixed-Methods-Design with multidimensional video-analysis as a main part. In interpretative analysis of classroom interactions, I consider verbalizations of mathematical thinking by the children. The empirical video data is from a class in Hamburg with students who speak German as a second language or have lower language skills because of migration or social disadvantage. Thus the focus is on mathematical language when children first come into contact with the language of schooling.

Within this topic, I will focus on two aspects: On the one hand, I will talk about my study in language and mathematics learning in the first grade in a multilingual classroom in Germany. On the other hand, I will show how at the University of Münster we raise our initial teacher education students' awareness of the relation between mathematics and language. Within this context I will speak about our story book we illustrated for the first grade. It addresses number aspects such as the cardinal numeral.

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