Underachievement in Mathematics language barriers

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Underachievement in Mathematics language
barriers

• Stephanie Bowgett

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What I did

• I was asked by two schools to do a question level
  analysis on their Year 5 optional SATs results,
  looking for differences between PEALs and their
  peers.

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Where I looked

• NFER marked SATs results for a school where 88
  of the pupils are PEALs
• This gives national of correct results and
  school of correct results.
• A sample of papers from a second school with both
  PEALs and monolingual pupils.
• In 7 questions on paper A and 8 on paper B 10
  less PEALs achieved the correct answer than their
  peers.

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Context of questions

• Fippi coogled 38 patamis to her teeps.
• She coogled each teep, 5 patamis.
• There were 3 patamis left over.
• How many teeps did Fippi have?

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Feedback
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Vocabulary

• The meaning of the word is its use within the
  language. Wittgenstein
• Activity
• How many different meanings and parts of
  speech can your word represent in different
  contexts?

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Feedback
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My examples

• Net
• net profit
• twitching nets at the window
• fish-net stockings
• net of a cube
• net a salmon

• Table
• table a motion
• table with Queen Anne legs
• periodic table
• 3x table
• water table

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Just one example - scale

• In this test the word is used in three different
  ways
• Question 4 Paper A
• Draw an arrow on the scale to show 200g.
• Question 23 Paper A
• Emma uses 5 shapes to balance 50g weights on
  a scale.
• Question 25 Paper B
• Not drawn to scale.

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everyday language

• Some problematic words and phrases
• each
• nearer to
• one more than
• match
• change
• how many more?
• between
• change
• difference

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Question 8 Paper A

• Here are some pairs of numbers.
• For each pair, circle the number that is nearer
  to 5
• One has been done for you
• 7.5 8.5
• 3.5 9.5
• 2.5 5.5
• 4.5 6.5

7.5
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Negatives

• Several examples of EAL pupils (disproportionate
  to their peers) not noticing not even though it
  was emboldened.
• Why?
• Are they unsure about this sentence structure?

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How algorithms are read

• 562-8
• can be read as 8 from 562.
• 17 5
• can be read as 5 added to 17
• Because a number sentence doesnt follow
  syntactical rules like a word sentence, the same
  numerical problem can be disguised in many
  different ways.
• In this paper EAL pupils found inverse operations
  more difficult. Is this a contributing factor?

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Word problems

• There seems to be several factors that make
  these especially difficult for PEALs
• the context
• the vocabulary
• the language structures to support higher order
  thinking skills, especially the modal verbs.

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What strategies will help to support PEALs to
solve mathematical word problems?

• Please discuss in groups.
• Write strategies on postits and add to the
  flipchart.

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Feedback
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Implications for groupings

• In order to rehearse the language structures that
  they need PEALs must
• be given the opportunity to work in mixed ability
  groups with good language role models
• be supported in oral rehearsal of logical
  thinking
• be encouraged to use L1, especially where this is
  their strongest language
• be encouraged to see mistakes as learning
  opportunities

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Any questions or comments?