Twenty-eighth International Conference on Learning

Abstract

In many school settings, there are students who are participating in lessons in a language that differs from their first language, and learning more than one language does not have a detrimental effect on students growing in their first language, even if students have a diagnosed language development disorder. When looking at the reasoning behind educator or school system choice to solely use English as the Language of Instruction (LOI) (de Araujo et al., 2018), Guiterrez (2013) found that the choice to use a student’s nondominant language reflected socio political ideology around immigration policy and colonial histories. With 80% of the English Language Learners in the United States speaking Spanish as a home language (McFarland et al., 2017), it calls to question how young learners are participating effectively in math classrooms. English only classrooms are called into question by Bautista Verzosa and Mulligan (2013) who share that students’ proficiency in first language (L1) and second language (L2) is related to mathematical success and performance in the classroom. Having a teacher who only communicates in a student’s L2 creates a sense of emotional disengagement for both student and teacher alike (Kasule & Mapolelo, 2005), and the mathematical identities of learners are impacted, just as their racial and linguistic identities are as well (Zavala, 2014). As educators begin to disengage from pupils, it calls into question professional commitment, and has been shown to reduce tolerance for learners who are not grasping concepts at the same speed as peers (Kasule & Mapolelo, 2005).