Re:Negative Impact of English on Math Learning
by josu on Tuesday October 20, 2015 @07:34PM
(#10422604)
I don't know, even if this effect exists, its weight on the overall math performance is really weak, there many other factors at play. Just compare the PISA results [1] of countries that use the same language:
FRENCH
France: 495
Switzerland: 531
Luxembourg[2]: 490
SPANISH
Spain: 484
Chile: 423
Mexico: 413
Peru: 368
PORTUGUESE
Portugal: 487
Brazil: 391
This is just a personal anecdote, but I have studied maths in 3 different languages: Basque (with a counting system similar to the French), Spanish and English. And I can't really say that I felt more comfortable using one or the other, but the three use pretty similar systems though.
FRENCH
France: 495
Switzerland: 531
Luxembourg[2]: 490
SPANISH
Spain: 484
Chile: 423
Mexico: 413
Peru: 368
PORTUGUESE
Portugal: 487
Brazil: 391
This is just a personal anecdote, but I have studied maths in 3 different languages: Basque (with a counting system similar to the French), Spanish and English. And I can't really say that I felt more comfortable using one or the other, but the three use pretty similar systems though.
[1] http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-overv... [2] At secondary school, in general, until the 9th class every subject is in German, except mathematics and sciences (in French) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingualism_in_Luxembourg