ATTITUDES TOWARDS TEACHING MATHEMATICS IN ENGLISH IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC

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1 ATTITUDES TOWARDS TEACHING MATHEMATICS IN ENGLISH IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC Marie Hofmannová *, Jarmila Novotná ** Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Education *, ** ABSTRACT The paper is a part of a longitudinal study focusing on qualitative aspects of learning in a foreign language on the development of cognitive processes in mathematics. The paper aims to find out how students feel about learning and/or teaching mathematics in English. This part of research was carried out in the school year 2001/2002. We worked with 59 students aged To specify the students attitudes, lessons of mathematics taught in were observed and video-recorded for further analysis. Questionnaires for students and interviews with teachers became an invaluable source of data. 1. INTRODUCTION Education in the Czech Republic has been undergoing development since the political change in The transition proceeded from the demonopolisation to a qualitative diversification of educational opportunities. The difficulties of reforms as well as recommendations for new educational policies and structures were stated in the Reviews of National Policies for Education prepared by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in The present paper is based on two of the new educational trends introduced in the past decade. They both concern teaching Mathematics in English to Czech students. The first one is Content and Language Integrating Learning (CLIL) launched as a pilot project of Socrates Lingua A Trans-language in Europe (TIE-CLIL). Its main characteristic feature is curricular integration. It is believed that content, e.g. mathematics, and a foreign language, e.g. English, can be better developed through gradual interplay ( % of the content is taught in a foreign language). Experiences gained so far testify to these beliefs. CLIL, taking into consideration students feelings, is a humanistic approach. It can be successful with 1

2 all learners in developing their positive can do attitude towards themselves (Marsh, 2000). The second one is an experimental bilingual programme administered through the Ministry of Education. It is aimed at a limited number of secondary school students who learn the maximum of six of their curriculum subjects in a foreign language. The first year of the 6-year programme stresses the language preparation. The content curriculum was worked out in cooperation with foreign partners and university specialists. The final year offers optional seminars for mastering the subject terminology in Czech. We were interested to discover some of the factors influencing success or failure of the implementation of the two reform experiments. Our hypothesis as members of the Socrates Lingua A TIE CLIL research team was that teaching mathematics in English in the Czech Republic can be introduced as easily as in other countries and with the same enthusiasm. 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK Our long-term research into the benefits of teaching mathematics in English to Czech students refers to the following domains: the development of students cognitive skills for both mathematics and English, the relationship of the two disciplines and its impact on learning and teaching. For many students mathematics and English are difficult subjects. Success or lack of it plays a vital part in the motivational drive. Both complete failure and complete success may be de-motivating (Harmer, 1989). Cognitive processes are influenced by emotions. Emotional reactions of students are ambiguous and often difficult to understand. Negative emotions can lead to creating emotional defence mechanisms, e.g. avoidance or rejection of involvement in certain classroom activities, they can lower the students ability to solve problems, etc. The teacher s task is to enable the students develop their individually different process of knowledge building and meaning construction as well as positive attitudes (DeCorte, 2000). What is it that makes a person want to learn or teach mathematics in English and not in Czech? The socio-educational model of learning (Gardner, 1985) incorporates the students cultural beliefs, their attitudes towards the learning situation, their integrativeness and their motivation. Hejný (1990) holds that motivation is the first step of all cognitive mechanisms. If we perceive a goal and if the goal is sufficiently attractive, we will be strongly motivated to do whatever is necessary to reach that goal. Thus students wishing to learn mathematics in English will probably be extrinsically motivated, i.e. more concerned with factors lying outside the classroom as they will have longterm goals. Such students are easier to teach. Their motivation is rather of the instrumental than the integrative type. Later on, however, the variables influencing 2

3 their motivation will also include the nature and perceived purpose of the task, the actions of the teacher and the nature of the teacher learner relationship (Williams and Burden, 1997). Students learning priorities are interesting classes and teachers who show them their success. Students willingness to engage in an activity simply because it is fun, exciting, informative, relevant and new is described as intrinsic motivation. 3. OUR RESEARCH It is obvious that we as teacher educators were more interested in practical implications of attitudes and motivation for learning/teaching than in external reasons for study. Therefore the data gained by a variety of means have been processed with the aim to advice new teachers wishing to get involved in the experimental programmes, how to increase the students intrinsic motivation. We used the following methodology: The lessons were observed and videorecorded for further analysis. Questionnaires dealing with Czech students attitudes became the primary source of data. We worked with two target groups of students aged coming from two secondary school classes. There were 59 students altogether. The choice of age was deliberate as it is commonly accepted that attitudes and motivation vary with regard to age. The questionnaires were administered in two schools: A) 30 students attending the final year of a typical lower secondary school in Prague where mathematics as well as all other subjects are taught in Czech. English is taught as a foreign language. The lessons of mathematics in English were conducted as four isolated episodes. B) 29 students attending the first year of a bilingual section in an upper secondary school in Olomouc where mathematics and five other subjects are taught in English throughout the course of study. Moreover, English is taught as a foreign language. This part of research was carried out in the school year 2001/2002. After some hesitation, we decided not to use the Attitude/Motivation Test Battery (Gardner, 1985) as it was invented for the purposes of language learning only. Instead, we created our own questionnaire. The questionnaire was administered in Czech. It consisted of three parts and it was not pre-announced. Part 1 consisted of two Yes/No questions. Its aim was to specify the students attitudes to mathematics/english in general. 3

4 Part 1 1. Baví mě matematika. I enjoy mathematics lessons. YES NO 2. Baví mě angličtina. I enjoy English lessons. YES NO Question No. Table 1: Summary Part 1 Yes (school A/school B) No (school A/school B) 1 12/20 18/9 2 21/27 9/2 Part 2 dealt with students attitudes towards mathematics and English linked together in one lesson/course. The first question involved a categorical response ( Do you welcome mathematics and English linked together within one lesson/course? ). The second question was related to the preceding one and it was open-ended ( If your answer was yes, in what ways, in your opinion, are such lessons better? ). Table 2: Summary Part 2 Jste rádi, když jsou hodiny matematiky a angličtiny vzájemně propojeny? Do you welcome Maths and English linked together in one lesson/course? Yes: 33 % No: 8 % Jestliže jste odpověděli ano, v čem jsou podle vašeho názoru takové hodiny lepší? If your answer was yes, in what ways, in your opinion, are such lessons better? Type of benefit Number of nominations (school A/school B) Loosening up, relaxation 5/2 Improvement of atmosphere in class 5/4 More fun in class 10/9 (Methodological) enlivening of classes 5/7 Increased attention and activity in class 9/6 Improvement of mathematical understanding 2/7 Improvement of English thanks to more practice 6/5 Easier vocabulary learning 4/4 Expansion of vocabulary (in both English and 7/9 Maths) Global improvement of motivation for English and 7/11 Maths 4

5 It was surprising that teenagers when given freedom to express their feelings, were able to give such clear and versatile set of benefits as shown in Table 2. To sum up, the sample nominated all the benefits stated in our hypothesis. The answers covered a wide range of possible methodological reasons for the inclusion of teaching mathematics in English in the school curricula. As an additional illustration, let us quote one of the A-group respondents answers: I was really impressed, of course I felt the absence of necessary terms but that is a minor thing I believe that learning something in a foreign language is a new, positive trend as it requires the necessity to negotiate meaning in far more classroom situations than in the dialogues during normal English classes. Finally, the results showed a large variety of internal factors interacting with each other in a dynamic manner. They ranged from arousal of curiosity and optimal degree of challenge to feelings of competence, awareness of developing skills and mastery in chosen areas to affective states, such as positive attitudes and confidence. Very few respondents stated external factors. In order to check the results, we decided to administer a short, control questionnaire Part 3. Its aim was to confirm or refute the data gained before. Part 3 consisted of a single multiple choice question. The students were asked to tick off one or more answers from the given options which were structured in order to cover both external and internal factors. Part 3 Co si myslíš o matematice vyučované v angličtině? What do you think about Maths taught in English? a) Byla to nuda. Jak pro malé děti. I was bored. It was kind of childish. b) Bavilo mě to. I enjoyed it. c) Bylo to moc těžké. It was too difficult. d) Nebylo to nic těžkého. It wasn t difficult at all. e) Naučil(a) jsem se hodně nových slovíček. I learned a lot of new words. f) Matematika v angličtině je lepší než matematika v češtině. I liked Maths in English better than Maths in Czech. g) Nevím, k čemu to bylo dobré. I do not know what this was good for. h) Mohlo by se to hodit. It could be useful. 5

6 Table 3: Summary Part 3 Option a b c d e f g h School A School B CONCLUDING REMARKS We hope we managed to prove that the students motivation to learn mathematics in English was intrinsic, i.e. dependent on the teaching style and the attitudes of teachers to the experiments. Therefore the last, supplementary step was to turn to some of the significant others: people who have already been involved in the experiments as teachers, and those who observed the lessons of mathematics taught in English. Some of them were student teachers from the Prague Faculty of Education. To find out their opinions, we used the method of oral interviews and a written procedure of unfinished sentences. This issue was dealt with in (Novotná, Hadj-Moussová, Hofmannová, 2001). We were surprised to discover that the teachers attitudes were mostly reserved, based on the assumption that the teaching of mathematics in English in Czech schools would require some specific conditions, above all a new type of teacher training and closer cooperation of schools within the European Union. The most frequent statement made by the teachers was the fear of not fulfilling the demands of the curriculum. We also noted doubts concerning their students ability for this type of study. Some teachers expressed doubts concerning their students attention span, time and classroom management, and mistakes correction. Other teachers were afraid of new teaching methods and techniques. Fears of this kind did not occur in the group of student teachers. It is possible that students who are enrolled in special teacher training courses that link mathematics and English are more confident. This may also be partly due to the lack of experience, i.e. teaching practice (Novotná, Hadj-Moussová, Hofmannová, 2001). To conclude, with adults a wide range of aspects of the heritage of the past regime were identified, most of them of a sociological nature and falling under the heading of inertia of acquired attitudes and behaviour patterns. Younger people were more open and more positive in their orientation to the new educational trends. 6

7 REFERENCES De Corte, E.: Marrying theory building and the improvement of school practice: a permanent challenge for instructional psychology. Learning and Instruction 10 (2000), pp Gardner, R.C.: Social Psychology and Language Learning: The Role of Attitudes and Motivation. Edward Arnold (1985). Harmer, J.: The Practice of English Language Teaching. Longman (1989). Hejný, M. et al.: Teória vyučovania matematiky 2. Bratislava: SPN (1990). (Theory of teaching mathematics. In Slovak.) Marsh, D.: Using languages to learn and learning to use languages. Ed.: Marsh, D. - Langé, G. Finland: University of Jyväskylä (2000). Novotná, J. - Hofmannová, M. - Petrová, J.: Using games in teaching mathematics through a foreign language. In: Proceedings CIEAEM 53. Ed. Ghisetti e Corvi Editori. Verbanie, Italy (2001), pp Novotná, J. Hadj-Moussová, Z. Hofmannová, M.: Teacher training for CLIL Competences of a CLIL teacher. In: Hejný, M. Novotná, J., Proceedings SEMT 01. Univerzita Karlova v Praze, Pedagogická fakulta (2001), pp Petrová, J.: CLIL: Using games in teaching mathematics through the English language. [Diploma thesis.] Charles University in Prague (2002). Williams, M. and Burden, R.L.: Psychology for Language Teachers. A Social Constructivist Approach.. Cambridge University Press (1997). Acknowledgement: The research was supported by the Research Project GAČR 406/02/0809 Language Forms and Their Impact on the Cognitive Processes Development. 7