Abstract
The Welsh language uses a regular counting system, whereas English uses an irregular counting system, and schools within Wales teach either through the medium of Welsh or English. This provides the opportunity to compare linguistic effects on arithmetical skills in the absence of many other confounding factors that arise in international comparisons. This study investigated the hypothesis that language properties influence children's performance in certain numerical tasks by comparing the performance of 20 Welsh- and 20 English-medium Year Two pupils in non-verbal line estimations and transcoding. Groups did not differ on global arithmetic abilities, but the pupils taught through the medium of Welsh on average performed better in the non-verbal line estimation tasks than the English-medium group. This superiority was most apparent in comparisons involving numbers over 20: a result which was complicated by the fact that Welsh-medium pupils showed a lower range of error scores than the English-medium pupils. These results were thought to be related to the increased transparency of the Welsh counting system.
Highlights
Comparisons of arithmetical performance of children in different countries have consistently shown significant differences (e.g., TIMSS, 1996; OECD, 2014).There are many possible cultural differences that may influence arithmetical development
Irregular counting systems on the other hand, such as English, include number words that do not show a one-to-one correspondence with the Arabic written system, such as teen numbers, e.g., “thirteen,” and multiples of ten, e.g., “twenty,” which need to be learned separately. These differences in the degree to which the spoken and written number systems of languages coincide with each other have been suggested as an explanation for some of the results of international comparisons of arithmetical performance
The main aim of the current study was to extend the findings of Dowker et al (2008) to investigate whether Welsh and English medium children in Wales would differ in the precision of their non-verbal number line estimation
Summary
Comparisons of arithmetical performance of children in different countries have consistently shown significant differences (e.g., TIMSS, 1996; OECD, 2014).There are many possible cultural differences that may influence arithmetical development. Irregular counting systems on the other hand, such as English, include number words that do not show a one-to-one correspondence with the Arabic written system, such as teen numbers, e.g., “thirteen,” and multiples of ten, e.g., “twenty,” which need to be learned separately. These differences in the degree to which the spoken and written number systems of languages coincide with each other have been suggested as an explanation for some of the results of international comparisons of arithmetical performance
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