Teaching and Learning Mathematics through English
Underestimating the usefulness of language in mathematical training is unrealistic. Using currently developed literature is important to ensure students understand mathematical concepts. Looking back into the history of teaching mathematics, we notice that literature and language have a role to play in explaining concepts and procedures. Adequate use of English in a mathematics class turns the subject from a mechanical process to relevant and meaningful ideas. These ideas, in turn, help broaden the minds of students so they can develop positive cultural and sociopolitical identities. In instances where students have a language barrier, either with the teacher or the primary language of instruction itself, learning becomes difficult.
Language barriers come in different forms, but they affect students from countries outside America, immigrants or culturally different minority groups. Valencia and Black (83) are of the opinion that the greatest problem that minority groups (their study was on Mexican Americans) fail in school is “deficit thinking”. They define it to be the notion people have those individuals of color from low-SES backgrounds fail in their education …show more content…
Ladson-Billings (77) defines this as the position where a teacher stops trying to reach individual and collective students. Another definition is a teacher who follows rules that dehumanize and de-skill students. It results in the academic death of pupils through failure in one’s studies, dropouts, expulsions, and suspensions. It is a terrible scenario because the cycle will repeat itself when these children become parents, and in their ignorance or wrong attitude, fail to provide literacy for future generations. Palmer (96) notices that this is a trend that repeats itself among African Americans who for some time now faced numerous challenges while trying to earn an
Underestimating the usefulness of language in mathematical training is unrealistic. Using currently developed literature is important to ensure students understand mathematical concepts. Looking back into the history of teaching mathematics, we notice that literature and language have a role to play in explaining concepts and procedures. Adequate use of English in a mathematics class turns the subject from a mechanical process to relevant and meaningful ideas. These ideas, in turn, help broaden the minds of students so they can develop positive cultural and sociopolitical identities. In instances where students have a language barrier, either with the teacher or the primary language of instruction itself, learning becomes difficult.
Language barriers come in different forms, but they affect students from countries outside America, immigrants or culturally different minority groups. Valencia and Black (83) are of the opinion that the greatest problem that minority groups (their study was on Mexican Americans) fail in school is “deficit thinking”. They define it to be the notion people have those individuals of color from low-SES backgrounds fail in their education …show more content…
Ladson-Billings (77) defines this as the position where a teacher stops trying to reach individual and collective students. Another definition is a teacher who follows rules that dehumanize and de-skill students. It results in the academic death of pupils through failure in one’s studies, dropouts, expulsions, and suspensions. It is a terrible scenario because the cycle will repeat itself when these children become parents, and in their ignorance or wrong attitude, fail to provide literacy for future generations. Palmer (96) notices that this is a trend that repeats itself among African Americans who for some time now faced numerous challenges while trying to earn an