Number transcoding in bilinguals-A transversal developmental study

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Psycholinguistics

Background:

• Number transcoding, the conversion between visual and verbal numerical representations, relies heavily on language proficiency.
• Educational systems influence numerical cognition, particularly when the language of mathematics instruction changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the impact of language of mathematics instruction on number transcoding abilities in German-French bilinguals.
• To examine age-related differences and language-specific effects in number transcoding.

Main Methods:

• Evaluated number transcoding in 5th, 8th, 11th graders, and adults using reading aloud and verbal-visual number matching tasks.
• Compared performance on base-10 and base-20 number structures across German (LM1) and French (LM2) as the language of mathematics instruction.

Main Results:

• Transcoding numbers with a base-20 structure (French '70s, '80s, '90s) resulted in slower response times across all age groups.
• Transcoding base-10 numbers in French (LM2) also incurred a cognitive cost, with slower reading aloud and more errors compared to German (LM1).
• The effect of LM2 transcoding cost persisted into adulthood for reading aloud, while matching task performance became similar across languages in older adolescents and adults.

Conclusions:

• Number transcoding is influenced by the transparency of number systems in the language of mathematics instruction.
• French numbers with base-20 structures present a challenge, indicating an age-independent language effect.
• The language of mathematics acquisition impacts transcoding proficiency, with effects lingering into adulthood, highlighting the strong link between language and numerical cognition.