Words and Concepts

18/10/13 Week 8 

I left the last workshop wondering about my own capacity and understanding of mathematical concepts.  What concepts don’t I know?  What are the concepts I don’t have words and names for? These questions influenced my reading selection and once again led in me in various directions. They also generated more questions – what are the concepts I need to know?  With this dilemma also comes the notion of the inextricable link between literacy and numeracy.  They cannot in reality be separated. 

One of the things I found interesting and slightly troubling in the readings was the link between language and concept development.  There is a strong belief that without language the concepts cannot be understood.  Gordon (2004) asks the question “ Is it possible that there are some concepts we cannot entertain because of the language we speak?” (p 496) His studies with the Piraha tribe in Amazonia demonstrated that numerical understandings and capacity to process numerically were “clearly affected “ by their counting system of “one-two-many”. Does this mean that without the language and words to explain the concepts it is not possible to fully understand the concepts? 

Butterworth et al (2008) ask a similar question; “Are thoughts impossible without the words to express them?” however their findings are in direct contrast.  They found that “no language effects” were found and in fact although statistically insignificant the Indigenous children from both regions performed better than their city counterparts in non-verbal addition even without language for higher numbers. 

This fits more closely with what I know, understand and believe about very young children.  Butterworth (2005) in another article also suggest an “innate specific capacity for acquiring arithmetical skills, but the effects of the content of learning, and the timing of learning in the course of development, requires further investigation. “ (p3).  This leads to further questions for me as an educator and will shape future professional learning and curiosity.

Butterworth, B (2005), The development of arithmetical abilities Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 46:1 3–18

Butterworth, B., Reeve, R., Reynolds, F., & Lloyd, D. (2008). Numerical thought with and without words: Evidence from indigenous Australian children. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105(35), 13179.

Gordon, P. (2004). Numerical cognition without words: Evidence from Amazonia. Science, 306(5695), 496-9.