Math attitudes and verbal memory in multilingual younger adults

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Educational Psychology
• Linguistics

Background:

• Previous research on mathematics attitudes primarily focused on monolingual individuals.
• Understanding math attitudes in multilingual populations is crucial for inclusive education.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if mathematics attitudes differ between languages in multilingual young adults.
• To explore the relationship between math attitudes, verbal memory, and calculation fluency across languages.

Main Methods:

• Surveyed 87 French-English bilingual young adults (18-25 years) on math attitudes, verbal memory, and calculation fluency in both languages.
• Utilized the Mathematics Anxiety Scale-Revised (MAS-R) for attitude assessment.
• Employed exploratory factor analysis and correlation analyses.

Main Results:

• Mathematics attitudes were comparable between English and French.
• A negative correlation was found between negative math attitudes and verbal memory in English, persisting after controlling for language proficiency.
• No significant correlation was observed between math attitudes (positive or negative) and calculation fluency.

Conclusions:

• Language of assessment does not appear to significantly alter math attitudes in this French-English bilingual sample.
• Negative math attitudes may be associated with reduced verbal memory performance in a specific language (English) for bilinguals.
• Math attitudes do not correlate with calculation fluency in this multilingual context.