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Bilinguals' understanding of logical connectives in English and Sesotho

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Abstract

Students in Lesotho secondary schools were given a test on the logical connectives “and”, “or”, and “if-then” in either English or Sesotho. In forms 1 and 2, the ‘Sesotho’ groups performed better than the ‘English’ groups, although both groups performed poorly. In form 4, the English group excelled. Analysis of responses to certain categories of questions was undertaken, for example, questions with negatives, questions which called for indirect reasoning, or questions whose answers were not determinable. Certain incorrect reasoning patterns, such as inverse reasoning, were investigated. Although certain differences between language groups were found, the differences were attributed to relative understanding of language rather than to Whorfian differences in logic between language groups.

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Zepp, R.A. Bilinguals' understanding of logical connectives in English and Sesotho. Educ Stud Math 13, 205–221 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00460711

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