Science a GoGo's Home Page Forums General Discussion General Science Discussion Forum Mother Tongue Affects Math Skills

The native language you speak may determine how your brain solves mathematical puzzles, according to a new study. Brain scans have revealed that Chinese speakers rely more on visual regions than English speakers when comparing numbers and doing sums.

Our mother tongue may influence the way problem-solving circuits in our brains develop, suggest the researchers. But they add that different teaching methods across cultures, or genes, may also have primed the brains of Chinese and English speakers to solve equations differently.

Source:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn9422-mother-tongue-may-determine-maths-skills.html

So as a native English speak I assume I am superior to the Germans, Greeks and Indians? This should lead to some fireworks among the hard of thinking.

hw would harvard prez Mr.Summer, (i m nt sure if he still is prez)react to the news as he thinks mathematical skills to be gender sensitive!may be the study will gt multidimensional-- chinese speaking men compared with english speaking women and vice versa!

peace

I think we all have images of numbers, and these do not necessarily relate to language, gender or nationality. Some may be better than others. What should be done is to ascertain how the most adept mathematicians visualise numbers and mathematics and then to teach that to young students. If this requires doing mathematics in a preferred language, so be it. I am very sceptical of the idea that "mothertongue" instruction is the best. As I have experienced in South Africa, this concept can be used to establish despotism and destroy individuality

I think language is of no consequence for doing mathematics. I did my graduate work in mathematics and I had several colleagues, foriegn grads, that claimed a milk tongue different than English. Many of these individuals were more than a little adroit with mathematics - even when clumsy with English.

I don't do much math these days, as physics now claims my attention, but I would say that when I do math my "thinking" is more tactile than, say, visual, verbal or auditory. I am more inclined to "feel" my way around a differential manifold than to see it. The verbal reasoning and logic come later when I have a good "feel" for what I want to express.

Jonny Boy suggest that we "ascertain how" mathematicians do their thing and then teach our children how. I've taught many math classes and have observed that most of the students don't think the way I do. I have had to make a special effort to "tune into" their thought patterns in order to get through to them.

It seems to me that the article DA Morgan cited is reaching for some of its ideas. I would say that it shows flawed methodology, but that is too harsh a judgement since the studies discussed may have been take out of context. Near the end of the article we see "... the study opens doors to explore ...". I think that's the most important part and the author, Khamsi, has neglected it.

If you think in language, your syntax is governed
by the language in which you think, but math should
be regarded primarily as a highly precise language
for expressing certain ideas.
I doubt that anyone advances very far in math
without using it as a separate language conciously
or unconciously.