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JIJER-839; No. of Pages 23
International Journal of Educational Research xxx (2012) xxx–xxx

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International Journal of Educational Research
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijedures

How does language impact the learning of mathematics? Comparison of
English and Korean speaking university students’ discourses oninfinity
Dong-Joong Kim a,*, Joan Ferrini-Mundy b,c, Anna Sfard d
a

Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA, USA1
c
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, USA
d
The University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel
b

ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Article history:
Received 30 August 2011
Received in revised form 30 December 2011
Accepted 3 January 2012Available online xxx

This study investigates the impact of language on students’ learning of mathematics. A
comparison has been made between English and Korean speaking university students’
discourses on infinity. In Korean, unlike in English, there is a disconnection between
colloquial and mathematical discourses on infinity, in that the mathematical word for
infinity is not a formalizedversion of a colloquial word but a novel sound, inspired by a
Chinese term for infinity. This difference was expected to be paralleled by certain
dissimilarity between the ways the discourses of the two groups developed toward the
mathematical discourse on infinity. Data with the help of which we intended to test this
hypothesis were collected through surveys and interviews. A total of 132 Englishspeakers
and 126 Korean speakers participated in the survey and then twenty paired
representatives were selected from each group for follow-up interviews. It was found
that in spite of the comparable levels of mathematical performance, there was, indeed, a
visible dissimilarity between mathematical discourses on infinity of Korean- and Englishspeaking students. In general, whereas no group couldpride itself on a well-developed
mathematical discourse on infinity, the mathematical discourse of the English speakers,
just like their colloquial discourse, was predominantly processual, whereas the Koreanspeaking students’ talk on infinity was more structural and, in an admittedly superficial
way, closer to the formal mathematical discourse.
ß 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Keywords:
Communicational approach
Mathematics learning
Language
English
Korean
Discourse
Infinity

Mathematics, known as a ‘‘universal language’’ or lingua franca of the modern world, is widely believed to be independent
of the language in which it is practiced. And yet, as has already been noted by mathematics education researchers, things
may be not as simple as that. To begin with, theclaim that mathematics is language-dependent is a part and parcel of the
growingly popular ethnomathematical stance (Ascher & D’Ambrosio, 1994), according to which mathematics is sensitive to
cultural idiosyncrasies, including those related to language. A particular type of linguistic influence is highlighted by
researchers who posit that language may impact the learning of mathematics. Thus, forexample, some specificities of
Chinese languages have been brought up as possible explanations for the Chinese students’ superior achievements in
international comparative tests such as TIMSS (Wang & Lin, 2005). Different kinds of evidence for the possibility of languagerelated differences in mathematics learning have been found through the investigation of multilingual classrooms

*Corresponding author.
E-mail address: dongjoongkim@gmail.com (D. Kim).
1
This material was based on work supported by the National Science Foundation, while Ferrini-Mundy was working at the Foundation. Any opinion,
finding, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science
Foundation.
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