The Relationship Between Mathematics and Language (Alt et al., 2014)

Purpose The present study examined the relationship between mathematics and language to better understand the nature of the deficit and the academic implications associated with specific language impairment (SLI) and academic implications for English language learners (ELLs).

Method School-age children (N = 61; 20 SLI, 20 ELL, 21 native monolingual English [NE]) were assessed using a norm-referenced mathematics instrument and 3 experimental computer-based mathematics games that varied in language demands. Group means were compared with analyses of variance.

Results The ELL group was less accurate than the NE group only when tasks were language heavy. In contrast, the group with SLI was less accurate than the groups with NE and ELLs on language-heavy tasks and some language-light tasks. Specifically, the group with SLI was less accurate on tasks that involved comparing numerical symbols and using visual working memory for patterns. However, there were no group differences between children with SLI and peers without SLI on language-light mathematics tasks that involved visual working memory for numerical symbols.

Conclusion Mathematical difficulties of children who are ELLs appear to be related to the language demands of mathematics tasks. In contrast, children with SLI appear to have difficulty with mathematics tasks because of linguistic as well as nonlinguistic processing constraints.

研究目的 本项研究旨在探讨数学与语言之间的关联，以便更深入地理解特定语言障碍（SLI）的本质及其在学术上的影响，以及对于英语学习者（ELLs）的学术影响。研究方法 对61名学龄儿童（其中20名SLI，20名ELL，21名母语为英语的单语者[NE]）进行了评估，使用了一种常模参照的数学评估工具和3款语言需求各异的基于计算机的实验性数学游戏。通过方差分析比较了各组均值。研究结果 表明，仅当任务语言需求较高时，ELL组的表现不如NE组。相反，SLI组的表现在语言需求较高的任务以及某些语言需求较低的任务上均不如NE组和ELL组。具体而言，SLI组在涉及比较数字符号和使用视觉工作记忆识别模式的任务上表现不佳。然而，在涉及视觉工作记忆识别数字符号的语言需求较低的任务中，SLI组与无SLI的同龄儿童之间没有组间差异。研究结论 对于ELLs的数学困难似乎与数学任务的语言需求相关。相比之下，SLI组在数学任务上遇到困难，似乎是由于语言以及非语言处理限制所致。