Abstract
48 children from primary 4 in private and public schools (24 from each) were asked to solve 10 arithmetic word problems (involving “more” or “less” as the cue word) presented in English and in their native language. Retrospective clinical interviews were also conducted to find out how each child analyzed the meaning of each problem, before deciding which operation to use to solve it. The results revealed that both public and private school children performed better both in skills and in strategies when problems were presented in their native language than when presented in English, but only public school had the result to be significant (P<.025). Also data obtained from the interviews are in accord with psycholinguistic theories concerning the polarized comparative pair of “less” and “more”.
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Adetula, L.O. Language factor: Does it affect children's performance on word problems?. Educ Stud Math 21, 351–365 (1990). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00304263
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00304263