Teaching math - languages dilemma!

Early Learning Teaching Your Child Math
1

I speak to my daughter in Russian, my Husband speaks to her in English, we do speak English around the house as our main language; and we are planning to have her learn Chinese with LR, since Chinese is the second language for most in our extended family.

It seemed obvious to me that we will do the LM in English (we do GD method). But then I just wondering… Should I encorporate the other languages that she is learning into her Math somehow?..

I am not clear on it just yet, but was just wondering if anyone had any experiences with that? Or if I teach her math in English and then simply teach her the names of the numerals in other language later on, it would be enough. Or would I need to show her “true quantities” in dots accompanied by the names in the other two languages that she is learning.

I hope I was clear in expressing my question, and just wondering if anyine has any thoughts or experiences? (I would not want her to later on do all her math in English in her brain, and translate it to lets say Russian or Chinese, I would much rather her think math in those languages as well, when she is in situation where she is using language other then English…) :confused:

2

Skylark,

I just went through yor same dilema. I have been going back and forth about how to manage it and I finaly came to this conclusion. I’m following GD methog too. I’m going to teach her English one week and then the same materials the following week in Spanish. Right now I’m in the process of trying to have my daughter catch up with what I had taught her in English. I’m just testing it right now. I’m not sure if she is going to get bored because she sees the same cards with the same numbers of dots. :confused: I’ll keep you posted.

I hadn’t thought about teaching her the whole thing is English and just the numerals with the phonics in Spanish. This may work too. My issue is that may baby is little and I don’t get any kind of feedback from her yet so it will be hard to see if it is working :unsure: I think it would depend on your child’s age.

I hope this helped a little bit and I didn’t confused you more :blush:

3

I am teaching my son his numbers in several languages, but I only followed the math program completely in english. When I began teaching the other languages I started out using wink to learn for chinese (which shows quantity and the character) and this same format for the other languages using LM or Powerpoint, but LM is so much better and easier :slight_smile:

Reinforcement for me comes in using sign language so whenever we are out or just playing around, I can always just sign the numbers and say them to him after he has learned the number.

Learning the numerals later on in the other languages is also an option I hadn’t considered, but since I decided to start when I began teaching quantity I went with door number one :slight_smile:

I hope I haven’t confused you, but please let me know if I have. So far this method is working great for us, but in the end you will find what works best for you and your daughter…good luck!!!

4

I’m in the same situation. I started with English because LM already had the English sound set in it and I wanted to get started right away since my son was 18 months when we started. We just finished all the equation sets according to Doman and since I don’t know how to do problem solving with LM I decided to start over the Doman method with my husband’s language Marshallese. (but we are still figuring out how to make the sound set). (I haven’t done numerals/written words yet - I’m saving that for last)

After that I’m planning to do it all again in Yupik Eskimo since that is what our community speaks.

My thoughts on the other comments… if you teach in one language one week and the second language the next - watch your child for boredom and then change. I noticed in general my son loses interest quickly with the math lessons so I HAVE to be quick and on my toes. Why not also try one language at one set and another at the second during the day? (since each set of dots is shown 3x during the day - make it 4 and show each language twice for each set) Our kids are smart and can handle it.

The only thought I have on if you do a second language last after the numerals are taught and with the written words is that it will only matter if the language has a different base system. So English is base-10 but there are languages that are base-3, base-7, and even base-20. Yupik is base 20 so to say the number 33 - you would say 20 and 10 and 3. (there isn’t one word for 33) Also I love how many Asian langauges say numbers like 33 - 3 and 3 tens. So…I would like to show those differences in the base system by using dots instead of only verbalizing it with the numeral. It’s a different way of thinking about math and maybe they should “see it” to get a fuller understanding of the difference.

Isn’t so cool how language and culture are connected?

Let me know how it all works out for you. I find it very interesting.

5

At the beggining I was doing one session in one language and the next session in the other, but then I was loosing track of which language was next and how many time total I had shown a set ( I’m still working on my organizational skills :wub: ) so I needed to do something quick that will work for me. I think everything is kind of an experiment because every child is different.

This post is great because I made me re-think about the subject. I think that math is math in any language and probably it will work if you teach the math itself in English (or whatever is you main language and then when you start teaching the child the characters you will teach them in the different languages you want to teach.

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I don’t necessarily agree that math is math in any language. The end answer might be the same but depending on whether the language is a base-10 language or not, the way someone THINKS about QUANTITY is DIFFERENT depending on the language. Not all languages in the world are a base-10 system like English. It is VERY interesting to see how someone from a different base system does mental math to come up with an answer.

I think it is important to think about whether the 2 languages you intend to teach your child has the same base system and if they do not, to think how the best way to demonstrate quantity to your child is.

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I’m sorry for my ignorance :frowning: I only know math in Spanish and English and I think about it the same way in both languages. I read your post before about the different bases depending on the language and how they were verbalized differently, but I didn’t know the way of thinking about the math was different too. :huh: Since I’m teaching my daughter English and Spanish it may not make any difference right now, but the third language a want to introduce her to is Mandarin, so I need to take this in consideration. For GD method I’m going to do it only in English and then teach the numbers is Spanish. Mandarin will have to be thaught by a program because I do not speak Mandarin. Do you know how it works with German?

Thanks again for the information :smiley: You just made my day, I learned something new today, that makes it a productive one :laugh:

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Oh so sorry Joha - I didn’t mean to make you feel “ignorant”. Or I hope I didn’t - that wasn’t my intent. Not at all. I don’t think everyone knows about the base-10 and other forms until you run across them or if you are a math teacher.

I believe that the “romance” languages - English, French, Spanish, and German are all base-10. (Please someone correct me if I am wrong).

I believe that Mandarin, Korean, and Japanese are also base-10 but slightly different. If I remember when I learned Korean for example - 33 is literally “three tens and 3”

I would have to google to find out the others or on Wikepedia you can find it under “numeral systems”

Here are some Numeral systems by culture
Hindu-Arabic numerals
Western Arabic
Indian family
Khmer Eastern Arabic
Brahmi
Thai

East Asian numerals
Chinese
Suzhou
Counting rods
Mongolian

Alphabetic numerals
Abjad
Armenian
Cyrillic
Ge’ez Hebrew
Greek (Ionian)
Ä€ryabhaá¹­a

Other systems
Attic
Babylonian
Egyptian
Inuit Etruscan
Mayan
Roman
Urnfield

Positional systems by base
Decimal (10)
2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64
1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 20, 24, 30, 36, 60, more…

I think that if you are from a bilingual home you would know if the 2 langauges you plan on teaching have 2 different base-systems and could adjust accordingly. Like in your case of Spanish/English I don’t think it matters much.

If you are going to introduce a language you don’t know yourself- you might want to find out first.

9

Thank you all for ideas, personal experiences and helpful info, Karma to you, jaluitgirl for such an in-depth post. It made me think and consider a different approach.

I still researching and deciding on how to go about my math teaching and different languages. I will keep you posted!

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Don’t worry I know you didn’t mean it that way! Again, I’m glad to learn new things :yes: The information you provided was great and this is what this forum is about. :slight_smile:

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As far as I know French and Danish languages are base-20. For example 70 in Danish is literally “half 4 times (twenty)”. French is even more complicated, 90 is “4 times twenty (+) ten”.

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I have the same problem. My mother tongue is Cantonese so now when I flash the math dot card, I speak Cantonese. I am thinking, it’s the concept we want our baby to learn, and not really the language we use. So, she will pick it up when she goes to school. Just like many of my friends told me not to worry about my baby not knowing English because they will for sure pick it up from preschool. My husband and I have worried about this coming September when we put our daughter (28-month now) to preschool because she knows very very little English as we want her to keep Cantonese so we seldom teach her English!! :expressionless:

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We are monolingual family and don’t speak English at home. With LR, I keep English voice in background, and speak Latvian myself. I don’t know what happens in my daughter’s head but maybe she is learning English. May be after some time I should try Chinese also lol

14

This is very interesting topic.

Hi, jaluitgirlV. I didn’t even realize what you mentioned: "If I remember when I learned Korean for example - 33 is literally “three tens and 3”.

For me, it was just natural to memorize 30 is pronounced as “three tens” as native speaker and I memorized one, two…after that when I was little.

For example, the other main language that we use at home is French. I memorized 90 is 20 times 4 plus 10 and 91 is 20times 4 plus 11. I learned French as an adult. But I learned French numeral system same as I learned my native Korean as a child.

I am doing dot card in English since we live in U.S. But thinking to introduce in different languages when we do numerals. I might be wrong. But I think baby will pick up the rule pretty fast if we do a lot of repetition do show numerals. We could explain to them about rules when they are even older.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts, guys.

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For example, I learned German as a teenager and lived in Germany as well. So, it was not just classroom learning language. In German, it’s like English, but for 23, you would say, 3 plus 20.

Overall, when I do equation in any language, I will translate that as numeral and do the math as it is. But if you ask me what language that I say in my mind when I have to do it quick, it’s my native language.

I don’t know how the multilingual baby thinks when they do equation :slight_smile: . Experts are saying that they are much capable than adults and possibilities are unlimited to them.

Hope it helps.

16

I learned French at school (but have forgotton it) and learned the French numeral systems the same way I learned my native language, too. I mean I learned that 90 is 20 times 4 plus 10 and 91 is 20times 4 plus 11 - as mamaDoudou said - but actually I memorized the 1 word itself rather than the mathematical operation behind the number :).

In Vietnamese 43 is four tens three (or shorter four-four). I find in English it’s the same (at least for me): fourTY four.

Well, about German numbers… German is second - almost - native languages, too. I went to German school from grade 2 on. But I still find the German numbers terrible. I often get confused about German numbers. When they say 25 (5 and 20 in German) I need to rethink if they mean 25 or 52. There was a funny story about that number. I asked a hotel for my friend and they told me that the room would costs 52 EUR but I “understood” 25 EUR on the telefon. Fortunately, my friend stayed there only for one night!

More over, the German numbers are long to speak 25 is “fuenfundzwanig”. Vietnamese in comparison: hai nam or English twenty-two is still shorter. I think speed is important when you do math. I have a Chinese friend. She told me one reason she do math in Chinese is because the German numbers a too long to speak (or think it out).

However, for me numbers are numbers. When I do math I see the numbers as the mathematic language itself and not German, not Vietnamese etc. But my experiences are limited since I am only familiar with 10base systems.