Learning Numbers: A Linguistic Perspective

Abstract

The difference in the status of numbers—as predicates in natural language and as objects in the formal language of mathematics—is argued to have consequences for children's learning of numbers and for the construction of arithmetic texts in the primary grades. This distinction is exemplified by the findings of an empirical study that utilized particular morphological properties of Hebrew relating to gender inflections for number words. The findings indicate that there is a crossing of the two language systems in children's oral reading of a mixed arithmetic text (words and numerals).