Does Phonological Awareness Influence Mathematical Word Problem Solving?
Keywords:
Mathematical Word Problems, Working Memory, Phonological Processing, Phonological AwarenessAbstract
Contemporary research in the fields of Psycholinguistics and Cognitive Linguistics is expanding and deepening our understanding of the role of phonological cognitive abilities in mathematical problem solving. Successful solving of mathematical word problems entails both reading skills and mental representation skills. Although the implications of language in learners’ mathematical development have been studied extensively; only few studies have spelled out the crucial role of phonological processing abilities in mathematical performance. Building on the working memory model propounded by Baddeley and Hitch (1974), the present correlation study examines the relationship between phonological awareness and mathematical word problem solving performance in primary children. Seventh grade children (n = 40) with a mean age of 12.5 years were assessed on phoneme deletion, phoneme segmentation, phoneme blending sound categorization and mathematics word problems. Using correlation analyses, the results indicated that phonological awareness is correlated to learners’ performance in mathematics word problems. Based on this finding, it is concluded that developing phonological awareness skill among learners should be given utmost importance during early years for better mathematical performance.
References
Abedi, J., & Lord, C. (2001). The language factor in mathematics tests. Applied Measurement in Education, 14, 219–234. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1207/S15324818AME1403_2
Adams, T. L. (2003). Reading mathematics: More than words can say. The Reading Teacher, 56 (8), 786 – 795.
Adams, T. L., & Lowery, R. M. (2007). An anlaysis children’s strategies for reading mathematics. Reading & Writing Quarterly, 23, 161 – 177. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/10573560601158479.
Alloway, T. P., Gathercole, S. E., Adams, A., Willis, C., Eaglen, R., & Lamont, E. (2005). Working memory and phonological awareness as predictors of progress towards early learning goals at school entry. British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 23 (3), 417-426.
doi:10.1348/026151005X26804
Baddeley, A. (1986). Working memory. New York, NY, US: Clarendon Press/Oxford University Press.
Baddeley, A. D. (2006). Working memory: An overview. In S.J. Pickering (Ed.), Working memory and education (pp. 1-31). Burlington, Ma: academic Press
Baddeley, A. D., & Hitch, G. (1974). Working memory. In G.H. Bower (Ed.), Recent advances in learning and motivation (pp. 47–89). New York: Academic Press.
Berninger, V.W. (2000). Development of language by hand and its connections with language by ear, mouth, and eye. Topics in Language Disorders, 20, 65–84. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1097/00011363-200020040-00007
Bjork, I. M., & Bowyer-Crane, C. (2013). Cognitive skills used to solve mathematical word problems and numerical operations: A study of 6- to 7-year-old children. European Journal of Psychology of Education, 28 (4), 1345 - 1360.
doi: 10.1007/s 10212-012-0169-7
Boonen, A. J. H., Koning, B., Jolles, J., & Schoot, M. (2016). Word Problem Solving in Contemporary Math Education: A Plea for Reading Comprehension Skills Training. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 1-10.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2016.00191.
Bradley, L., & Bryant, P. (1985). Rhyme & reason in reading & spelling. Ann Arbor, MI: Univ. of Michigan Press.
Cockcroft, K., & Alloway, T. P. (2012). Phonological awareness and working memory: Comparisons between South African and British children. Southern African Linguistics and Applied Language Studies, 30 (1), 13 – 24.
doi: 10.2989/16073614.2012.693706.
Dehn, M. J. (2008).Working Memory and Academic Learning: Assessment and Intervention. Hobiken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Retrieved from www. ugcascru.org
Della Sala, S., Gray, C., Baddeley, A., Allamano, N., & Wilson, L. (1999). Pattern span: A tool for unwelding visuo-spatial memory. Neuropsychologia, 37, 1189-1199.
De Smedt, B.,Taylor, J., Archibald, L., & Ansari, D. (2010). How is phonological processing related to individual differences in children’s arithmetic skills? Developmental Science, 13, 508–520.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00897.
Duncan, G. J., Dowsett, C. J, Claessens, A., Magnuson, K., Huston, A. C., & Klebanov, P. et al. (2007). School readiness and later achievement. Developmental Psychology, 43. Avaliable at:
https://doi.org/10.1037/0012- 1649.43.6.1428
Elhassan, Z., Crewther, S. G., & Bavin, E. L. (2017). The contribution of phonological awareness to reading fluency and its individual sub-skills in readers aged 9- t0 -12 years. Frontiers in Psychology, 8, 1-11.
doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00533.
Ellis, N. (1990). Reading, phonological skills and short-term memory: Interactive tributaries of development. Journal of Research in Reading, 13 (2), 107-122. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-9817.1990.tb00328.x
Gathercole, S. E., & Pickering, S. J. (2000a). Assessemnt of working memory in six- and –seven year –old children. Journal of Educational Psychology, 92 (2), 377-390.
Gathercole, S. E., & Pickering, S. J. (2000b). Working memory deficits in children with low achievement in the national curriculum at 7 years of age. The British Journal of Educational Psychology, 70 (2), 177-194.
Gilliam, R. B., & vanKleck, A. (1996). Phonological awareness training and short-term working memory: Clinical implications. Topics in language disorders, 17, 72-81. doi:10.1097/00011363-199611000-00008
Gombert, J. E. (1992). Metalinguistic development. London: Harvester-Wheatsheaf.
Hall, K. (2015). The effects of blending and segmenting decoding strategies on reading (Master Theses, Cardinal Stritch University).
https://digitalcommons.stritch.edu/etd/216
Hecht, S. A., Torgesen, J. K., Wagner, R. K., & Rashotte, C. A. (2001). The relations between phonological processing abilities and emerging individual differences in mathematical computation skills: A longitudinal study from second to fifth grades. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 79, 192–227. Available at:
https://doi. org/10.1006/jecp.2000.2586.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2022 Indian Journal of Clinical Psychology
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
