Identifying vernacular language to use in mathematics teaching

Abstract

Teaching mathematics in children’s first language has both cognitive benefits and assists with developing cultural and mathematical identity. In Papua New Guinea, many different Indigenous languages are used for instruction in elementary schools and teachers often need to identify or develop mathematics terminology themselves. Building on prior research, guidelines were developed to assist teachers to find the mathematics in their own vernacular languages. The guidelines were adaptable to different language ecologies and covered mathematical areas such as counting systems, measuring and comparing, location and shapes. The guidelines were applied by teachers in professional development workshops. The paper shows examples from some of the workshops of the challenges that the teachers faced in trying to identify appropriate mathematical language, and that contributed to the refining of the guidelines.

Keywords:

• Mathematics
• indigenous languages
• elementary education
• early childhood education
• teacher development
• first language

Disclosure statement

The views expressed in the publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Commonwealth of Australia which accepts no responsibility for any loss, damage or injury resulting from reliance on any of the information or views contained in this publication. Some research for this article was conducted while the first author was employed by Umeå University, Sweden. Priscilla Sakopa was one of the facilitators of the Hela workshop.

Additional information

Funding

The project was funded through an Australian Development Research Award by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australian Government.