Teaching Mathematical Problem Solving to Students with Limited English Proficiency.

Many mainstreamed students with limited English proficiency continue to face the difficulty of learning English as a second language (ESL) while studying mathematics and other content areas framed in the language of native speakers. The difficulty these students often encounter in mathematics classes and their poor performance on subsequent assessments of their learning of mathematics, therefore, is often unrelated to their potential for learning and understanding mathematics concepts and procedures. This study describes a progrzsm that attempts to utilize a blend of techniques from the fields of ESL or bilingual education and those of current practices in mathematics education focusing on communication in order to develop better mathematical problem solving approaches among upper elementary grade language minority students. An ethnographic study of one mathematics teacher and his approximately 30 sixth-grade students found that students with greater English competency did not demonstrate significant differences in their scores for problem solving in English and Spanish although there was a strong trend f r scores to be higher in Spanish both at pretest and posttest times. (MKR) *i ***************A. %******1'. **********). **A******'! *************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** Teaching Mathematical Problem Solving to Students with Limited English Proficiency PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC! Rochelle G. Kaplan, Ph.D. William Paterson College Wayne, NJ Rodrigo A. Patino Paterson School District Paterson, NJ U S DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION 1"K ( iJcal,Onal Research and improvement rocArioNA: RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER tERICI 00(.(0.41,(1 nan been reproduced as 1,0, the person or Organization .1 : cnangeS ha.e been made to treprove teprOduCttOn Qoally Py(n1s 01 vew 0( 00.0.00S staled ,n th,s dOtu,nent do not neceSsardy represent orfic,ol of RI DOs.1.00 om policy Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association, April 8, 1996, New York, NY. BEST COPY AVAILABLE 2 Teaching Mathematical Problem Solving to Students with Limited English Proficiency (Paper Presented at the 1996 Annual AERA Meeting) Rochelle G. Kaplan Rodrigo A. Patino William Paterson College Paterson School District Among its position statements, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 1995) has indicated its commitment to equity in mathematics education for all students including language minority students. Specifically the statement indicates that "cultural background and language must not be a barrier to ftill participation in mathematics programs" (p. 20). But what exactly should that statement mean in practical terms? Clearly it is not enough simply to change the textbooks and provide grade level instruction for all students. Research on achievement of lan page minority students tells us that although it takes only two years to achieve conversational competence in a second language, it takes up to seven years to attain sufficient second language competence to achieve in academic areas at the level of native speakers (Cummins, 1986). Thus, many mainstreamed students with limited English proficiency (LEP) continue to face the difficulty of learning English as a second language (ESL) while studying mathematics and other content areas framed in the language of native speakers. The difficulty these students often encounter in mathematics classes and their poor performance on subsequent assessments of their learning of mathematics, therefore, is often unrelated to their potential for learning and understanding mathematics concepts and procedures. Rather many language minority students are firced into a pattern qf failure because they do not yet underst 4nd the lanyulTe in which mathematics problems and concepts are embedded. THIS IS THE BASIC PREMISE OF