STEMscopes Staff | Published February 22, 2023
If you’re a curriculum leader or math teacher, you are probably facing the challenge of how to support multilingual learners in math class. You are not alone. In fact, 10.4 percent of public school students in the United States were English learners (ELs) in the fall of 2019.
These students are not only tackling math skills and learning to think through math problems like your other students but also doing it in a new language.
Meeting their needs adds a layer of complexity to schools already challenged by learning loss from the pandemic and low math scores on standardized and district-level assessments.
In this blog, we’ll unpack some of the issues around teaching math to multilingual learners. Then we’ll look at some techniques and approaches to teaching multilingual learners that can help all students as they learn the language of math.
You may be more familiar with the term “English language learner” or ELL. These are students who speak another language at home and are learning to speak English at the same time as they are learning content and skills at school.
Many states and federal agencies use “English language learner” (ELL) or “English learner” (EL) in their regulations and policies. You may also see the terms English Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) or English as a Second Language (ESL).
Today many educators are adopting the new term “multilingual learner” to cover a broader spectrum of students coming from different backgrounds and situations. NSTA’s highly inclusive definition is:
Multilingual learners are students who are developing proficiency in multiple languages. This includes students learning English as an additional language in school (often referred to as "English learners" or "English language learners").
Some of these students may present with moderate proficiency in conversational English but not formal English writing and speaking skills. Others may be just embarking on their English learning journey. They may or may not have had formal math instruction in their country of origin, and if they have, it may not have followed the same stages that a US math curriculum typically follows.
The bottom line is that there is no single profile of an ML. As a math teacher, you must assess each child for their current level of proficiency in both math and language comprehension and production.
It’s common to say that “Math is a universal language,” but this is only the case after you have learned the language of math. If you think of math as having a language of its own, this means that multilingual learners are learning a new language (math) IN a new language (English), so they can then learn new mathematical concepts.
It’s no wonder that math presents particular challenges to multilingual learners!
Math teacher Kristen Vibas, in her teaching blog A Walk in the Chalk, explains that there are three tiers of vocabulary: basic vocabulary, “grade level” vocabulary, and content-specific vocabulary.
Native English speakers arrive in the math classroom proficient in basic vocabulary and actively learning grade-level vocabulary in other content areas in school. For those children, the math teacher can focus on teaching math-specific vocabulary.
For multilingual learners or ELLs, however, Vibas says,
There is a LOT of language involved in math, and for students who are new to the country, this poses a lot of obstacles. Not only do we teach grade level math concepts to our students, but we also need to teach the language of math. ... In classrooms with beginning ELLs, vocabulary is one of the main focuses of instruction. Terms from all three levels need to be explicitly taught.
Another challenge is that MLs can get sidelined in the math classroom, says teacher Kanushri Wadhwa.
Studies have found that while European- and Asian-background students often get positioned as mathematically competent, ELL students of other backgrounds often get cast in marginal roles within the classroom.
The result can be twofold.
First, MLs who do not participate fully in the classroom and do not get the chance to practice communicating their mathematical thinking or using formal mathematical language, do not become proficient in grade-level math skills.
And, at a psychological level, ML students come to view themselves as not being mathematically competent. The combination of gaps in skills and poor self-image creates a problem that is compounded as the student moves through the grade levels.
Many math teachers wrestling with the challenge of teaching math to multilingual learners are generous about sharing their tips and techniques, as well as their perspectives on working with these students.
We’ve distilled some of the best of these approaches into seven broad categories of strategies for teaching math to multilingual learners.
The goal here is to make sure MLs are included in the conversation and given a full opportunity to participate, with the confidence and expectation that they will be able to demonstrate their mathematical thinking.
An important foundation for creating this kind of classroom experience for MLs is examining your own behaviors to ensure that you are not unintentionally sidelining these students or applying lower expectations to them.
There are various practical approaches to putting this aspiration into action.
Here are a few:
Create activities and prompts that encourage MLs to actively participate and communicate without the pressure of speaking in front of the whole class.
This is the most frequently recommended strategy for teaching math to multilingual learners. Fortunately, it is one that will benefit all students.
When presenting math concepts, use as many visuals as you can—whether you’re good at drawing or not! Kristen Vibas says, “I really wish I could draw! ... It’s always a challenge, but my students get a kick out of my efforts.”
Word problems mirror the way math is encountered in the real world. They often take any math learner some thought to understand. As such, they pose a particular challenge to MLs.
For any student, connecting science and math concepts to the world they know and observe makes the subject come alive. It is particularly important to engage MLs with experiences that are familiar and meaningful to them.
You are not alone! Classroom teachers and districts all over the country are working hard to meet the needs of multilingual learners.
Developing new techniques for teaching math to multilingual learners has the potential to reshape the way teachers and all students approach, think, and learn math.
Many of these approaches will benefit students of all kinds, not only multilingual learners. Students who are visual learners will benefit from a greater emphasis on visual representation, while kinesthetic learners will connect with manipulatives and hands-on activities.
Most students will increase their problem-solving skills by learning to carefully parse the components of a word problem to apply what they know about math to a problem in the real world.
Taking an attitude toward MLs that is open and curious about their cultures and the differences in the way math is taught in their countries of origin and celebrating the richness that they bring to the class will also contribute to a culture of inclusion in the classroom.
And encouraging other students to help their ML classmates to become proficient in the languages of both English and math sets an expectation around diversity and inclusion that will have an impact well beyond their understanding of the math content.
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