Evaluating Mathematical Skills through Second Language
Author(s):
Maria Kela (presenting / submitting) Päivi Portaankorva-Koivisto
Conference:
ECER 2015
Network:
09. Assessment, Evaluation, Testing and Measurement
Format:
Paper

Session Information

09 SES 05 A, Findings from PISA: Relating Achievement to Student and Context Factors

Paper Session

Time:
2015-09-09
11:00-12:30
Room:
326. [Main]
Chair:
Kajsa Yang Hansen

Contribution

For pupils whose first language is not identical to the language of instruction at school, learning mathematics means translanguaging between at least three languages: the learner’s native language – for mathematical thinking, the language of instruction – for communication, and the language of mathematics – for doing mathematics.  

For the PISA 2012 data, students with an immigrant background (3.5 % of the population) were oversampled in Finland (15 % of the sample). Although Finland in general is an achiever in PISA tests, the report (Harju-Luukkainen et al. 2014) shows that in comparison with other OECD countries, Finnish immigrant pupils scored statistically significantly below average in PISA 2012. Finnish students with an immigrant background showed lower performance in all of the mathematical fields tested, and a particularly alarming finding was that 51.5 % of immigrant pupils did not reach the minimum level 2 of mathematical proficiency. The biggest difference (41.7 %-units) between immigrant pupils and pupils without immigrant background was in mathematical content area Uncertainty and data, where tasks dealt with working and interpreting statistics and probabilities. 

In our presentation we will examine the reasons to the L2 learners’ low scores in PISA tests in general and particularly in Finland. First, we will analyze some PISA mathematics tests to scrutinize what linguistic skills and what mathematical skills pupils are expected to have while solving these tasks.  Second, we will show some pieces of data where 15-year-old “Pavel” is solving PISA tasks.

 

 

Method

The informant has moved from Russia at the age of 11 and thus he represents the largest foreign population in Finland. From the beginning of his stay in Finland “Pavel” has been participating a longitudinal research, which aims to analyze the children’s L2 learning at school. In addition to the first year data, "Pavel" was recorded again when he had stayed in Finland for three and half years. This time he had reached PISA age, so he was recorded solving PISA mathematics tasks.

Expected Outcomes

A verbal test in mathematics – such as PISA tests are – become easily tests of reading comprehension to pupils studying mathematics in their second language (L2). Special attention must be paid to the instruction of first generation immigrant pupils, to scaffold their learning. Translanguaging might be one of the useful affordances, and it should be made possible also in the authorized test situations.

References

Ellis, N. C., & Larsen‐Freeman, D. (2009). Constructing a second language: Analyses and computational simulations of the emergence of linguistic constructions from usage. Language Learning 59, 90-125. Harju-Luukkainen, H., Nissinen, K., Sulkunen, S., Suni, M., Vettenranta, J.(2014). Keys to Competence and Future. A Report on PISA 2012 Results and Related Underlying Factors for Students with an Immigrant Background. University of Jyväskylä. Finnish Institute for Educational Research Norris, J. M., & Ortega, L. (2009). Towards an organic approach to investigating CAF in instructed SLA: The case of complexity. Applied Linguistics, 30(4), 555-578.

Author Information

Maria Kela (presenting / submitting)
University of Helsinki
Department of Teacher Education
University of Helsinki
Päivi Portaankorva-Koivisto
University of Helsinki, Finland

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