Children solving word problems in an imported language : an intervention study

This paper reports on one aspect of a two-year design study aimed to assist second-grade Filipino children solve additive word problems in English, a language they primarily encounter only in school. With Filipino as the medium of instruction, an out-of-school pedagogical intervention providing linguistic and representational scaffolds was implemented with 17 children. Pre-intervention, children experienced linguistic difficulties and were limited to conceptualising and solving simple additive structures. Post-intervention interviews revealed improved understanding of more complex structures, but only when linguistic difficulties were minimised.9 page(s