Which Potential Linguistic Challenges do Pre-Service Teachers Identify in a Mathematical Expository Text?

Area of Science:

• Mathematics Education
• Linguistics in Education

Background:

• Language is integral to mathematical thinking and learning.
• Effective mathematics teaching requires linguistically responsive strategies.
• Identifying linguistic challenges in mathematical texts is a key teacher skill.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate pre-service teachers' ability to identify linguistic challenges in mathematical expository texts.
• To compare pre-service teachers' identifications with expert assessments.
• To explore factors influencing the identification of linguistic challenges.

Main Methods:

• A study involving 115 pre-service teachers.
• Analysis of participants' identification of linguistic challenges in a ninth-grade mathematical text.
• Comparison with a reference expert group's identified challenges.

Main Results:

• Pre-service teachers identified only 12% of potential linguistic challenges identified by experts.
• Challenges at the word level and those specific to mathematics were identified more frequently.
• Disagreement existed in subjective judgments of challenge disciplinarity between participants and experts.

Conclusions:

• Pre-service teachers demonstrate limited proficiency in identifying linguistic challenges in mathematical texts.
• Current teacher preparation may not adequately equip educators for linguistically responsive mathematics instruction.
• Further training is needed to enhance teachers' ability to address linguistic barriers in math learning.