Math vs Foreign Language

[FairyMom]

Years ago when I was researching ways to homeschool my children, I came upon a study that expressed the merits of Mathematics compared to Foreign Languages before 2nd or 3rd grade... Basically, not to teach foreign language to a child under 8 or 9 if you want to develop the neural pathways towards mathematics or science... wait for foreign languages until at least 2nd grade, but before 5th grade.

 

Does anyone remember a study or article about this? The cobwebs in my brain have taken over and I can't remember where I saw it. Thanks! :)

[FairyMom]

Shamelessly bumping... :D

[magnificat]

There is an article at Memoria Press which goes into Latin and math developing the mind that sort-of hits on what you are talking about. Sounds like it might be the opposite of what you were talking about though.

 

http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/apology-latin-math.html

 

Sorry if it turns out to be a waste of your time - I recall appreciating the article years ago!

[FairyMom]

Thank you! It was an interesting read. :) Math as a language makes sense.

[besroma]

The Bluedorns write about this in Trivium Pursuit.

[regentrude]

Years ago when I was researching ways to homeschool my children, I came upon a study that expressed the merits of Mathematics compared to Foreign Languages before 2nd or 3rd grade... Basically, not to teach foreign language to a child under 8 or 9 if you want to develop the neural pathways towards mathematics or science... wait for foreign languages until at least 2nd grade, but before 5th grade.

 

That sounds strange, and I am hard pressed to believe it - it would mean that children who grow up bilingually should be performing worse in math and science than children who are do not learn a foreign language. I have never seen any data supporting this fact, and plenty of anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Just look at all those Asian (or Russian) kids who are fluent in both their native language and in English which they have studied since preschool, and who outperform English-only American kids in math and science.

[regentrude]

The Bluedorns write about this in Trivium Pursuit.

 

But they also advocate not starting math until age 10 - or any other formal studies. :confused:

[SnegurochkaL]

That sounds strange, and I am hard pressed to believe it - it would mean that children who grow up bilingually should be performing worse in math and science than children who are do not learn a foreign language. I have never seen any data supporting this fact, and plenty of anecdotal evidence to the contrary. Just look at all those Asian (or Russian) kids who are fluent in both their native language and in English which they have studied since preschool, and who outperform English-only American kids in math and science.

 

 

I personally agree with you. My oldest daughter started learning a foreign language at age 2, which didn't affect her math abilities. She is very good at math (my standards are very high- 100% on Singapore/Russian math assignments). She started studying math at age 3.5. My child is not truly bilingual, but she can read and write in Russian at 1st grade level. Russian is not a foreign language for our family, French and German languages are.

 

 

My son started counting in French before he even knew how to count in English. He was about 2 years old. He outperforms my oldest daughter in logic and beats my husband in SET game very often.

 

I think young kids are like sponges.

We just need keep supplying them enough "meaty" materials to "consume".

I can not always keep up with my kids. :tongue_smilie:

 

Whoever wrote that strange article has very limited understanding of brain development and doesn't have his facts right.

[Rosie_0801]

All languages are kept in the same parts of the brain so if a foreign language was going to hamper maths ability, their mother tongue would too.

 

Rosie