The influence of second language teaching on undergraduate mathematics performance

Understanding abstract concepts and ideas in mathematics, if instruction takes place in the first language of the student, is tough as it is. Yet worldwide it is a recognised problem that students often have to master mathematics via a second or third language. The majority of students in South Africa – a country with eleven official languages – have to face this difficulty. In a quantitative study of first year calculus students, we investigate two groups of students. For one group tuition takes place in their home language; for the second group, tuition is in English, a second or even a third language. By factoring out the influence of various social factors as well as the mathematical backgrounds of students, more insight is gained into the success of the teaching process. Two groups of students attending first language lectures are identified: Afrikaans and English. Two groups of students attending English second language lectures are identified: Afrikaans and other (consisting mainly of students from African cultures). A grade twelve mathematics mark and a first year mathematics mark are associated with each research participant. Where possible, analysis of co-variance (ANCOVA) is done to compare the adjusted means of the different groups. The observed means of the groups are compared in the analysis of variance (ANOVA). The study shows that there is no significant difference between the adjusted means of the entire group of first language learners and the entire group of second language learners. Neither is there any statistically significant difference between the performances of the two groups of second language learners (based on the adjusted means).