The Intersections of English-Language Proficiency, Use of Technology, and Teaching and Learning Mathematics in Undergraduate Courses in the UAE

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6463-286-6_13How to use a DOI?

Keywords

language proficiency; technology; mathematics

Abstract

There is an undeniable link between student language proficiency and mathematical performance. In institutions such as ours in the UAE, the medium of instruction is English, which poses a further layer of complexity for Emirati students in developing mathematical skills. How can math teachers overcome these difficulties? Previous research indicated that explicit vocabulary instruction, mnemonic strategies, and gamification strategies, including the use of technology for teaching and learning, were proven effective in overcoming poor math performance in the mathematical classroom. We consulted an experienced mathematician who shed light on strategies to help students to overcome their mathematics phobia and predisposed negative connotations to mathematics as a science. We suggest that the use of technology, strategic methods of explicit language teaching, storytelling, and gamification could increase student motivation and performance in mathematics. Furthermore, mathematical instruction should move from scientific pedagogy from facts and specific principles to a language-focused, technology-infused pedagogy to support students whose mother tongue is not English. We conclude that there is a paucity of research on interdisciplinary approaches to teaching mathematics, and it warrants further investigation by mathematicians, language teachers, and technology experts in interdisciplinary studies rather than in separate sciences.

Copyright

© 2023 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - Nataliia Borysenko
AU  - Magdaleen Corne Lotter
AU  - Panagiotis Papadopoulos
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/11/23
TI  - The Intersections of English-Language Proficiency, Use of Technology, and Teaching and Learning Mathematics in Undergraduate Courses in the UAE
BT  - Proceedings of the HCT International General Education Conference (HCT-IGEC 2023)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 165
EP  - 176
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6463-286-6_13
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6463-286-6_13
ID  - Borysenko2023
ER  -