The ESL student in the mathematics classroom : student questions as a mode of access to knowledge

Over the past decade, a sizeable body of research has addressed issues in metacognition, the way in which the learner plans, implements and monitors cognitive behavior (Garofalo and Lester, 1985). This type of consideration is of interest to studies which try to build models of human cognitive process for such applications as artificial intelligence and/or curriculum development. To form one's own mental map of a body of knowledge is to discover a structure of, or to impose a structure on, that body of knowledge. In the case of secondary school mathematics curricula, the student is typically discovering structure which is to some degree made explicit in the presentation of the material. However, when the language of instruction is not the student's first language, when the student is unaccustomed to many of the communication conventions of the language of instruction and of the subject register as well, fewer assumptions can be made about how the student is navigating around the body of knowledge. In this study, the relatively scarce questions asked by ESL (English as a Second Language) students in a secondary school English-speaking mathematics classroom were observed over time. The data provide some evidence of the natural manner in which the students attempt to form a mental map of the body of knowledge under exploration. The body of research on classroom questions (e.g. Sinclair and Coulthard, 1975) has focused almost entirely on questions asked by the teacher. Questions asked by students differ in both form and intention from questions asked by teachers, however; as a result the methods of analysis employed in studies of teacher questions are inappropriate for the analysis of student questions. A more appropriate method of analysis for this study's examination of student questions about a body of knowledge was found to be an ethnographic one which regarded questions as a means of eliciting aspects of a structured knowledge domain. Mohan's (1986) knowledge framework, which embodies a structured taxonomy of topics and tasks, is used here to categorize the data according to the type of knowledge sought through each student question. Observed differences between the surface content of student questions and the context-apparent intention of these questions provide some insight into how students may be assisted to better ask the questions which they use to seek help in their navigation of bodies of knowledge. Published teaching materials intended for ESL students of secondary mathematics are examined here for relevance to the students' need to develop help-seeking strategies; suggestions for more effective accommodation of this need are made. Computer software developed by the researcher for exploration of possibilities in computer aided instruction in question formation is described.Education, Faculty ofLanguage and Literacy Education (LLED), Department ofGraduat