Using Math to Teach English
Armen. HovhannesCity College of San [email protected] www.ccsf.edu/shovanesCATESOLApril 2006
Rationale
Relevance: Math is related to everything in life. The so-called “new new” math, or “whole math”, especially emphasizes this. Math is about problem solving in real-world situations. Economics/Finance –
Personal/Family/Business/Macroeconomics Parenting – Assisting kids with homework Brainstorm others here:
Rationale (cont.)
Many students have strong mathematical intelligence. math intelligence is an untapped resource in the
ESL classroom Many adult students have a lot of math schema in
their L1
Math is an international language that communicates meaning.
Many immigrant students in community college have
academic/career goals in fields involving math/science/business.
Math is largely missing from most ESL courses/curricula/materials
Basic Numbers & Math
Basic math operations vocabulary and expressions Addition, subtraction, multiplication, division How to say “plus”, “minus”, “equals”, etc. How to pose the questions, i.e., “How much is ...?”
Percents and fractions
Decimals and commas Note that the use of the point as decimal marker varies in
different countries. Make sure S’s are clear on the use of the point and the comma in the US.
How to say large numbers How to say numbers with decimals
Go beyond just reciting/repeating the numbers. Spice up your curriculum with some math basics in English
Basic Math activity
Math Dictation In the
classroom, use calculators
Or, use Excel in the computer lab.
Math Games and other fun stuff for students & parents
Games with math and numbers Math Bingos Beat the calculator Number guessing games “I’m thinking of a number...”
Web sites – just a couple of examples
Figure this At Home with Math Education Place Brain Teasers
Personal/Family Finance
My Expenses
Money to my mother10%
Debt6%
Recreation2%
Health10%
Food26%
Rent 41%
Transportation2%
Utilities3%
This is a real favorite with students. I’ve done it in various ways. Here’s one: Introduce concept and terminology of budgeting. Students brainstorm expense categories. (Food, Rent, Transportation, etc.) This is excellent for generating vocabulary. They can use real, estimated, or fantasy (ex. My Dream Budget) figures.
They enter their information in a worksheet. (Here is an example.)They make a Pie Chart of their expenses. This is an example of the same student’s expense chart.
Macroeconomics
Budgeting for the larger community How would you spend $100 billion?
Economic Stimulus Plan (in billions of $)
Tax Cuts -For low and moderate income, $30
Education, $20
Health care , $20
Unemployment programs, $30
Basic Business Math
Inventory Expense log Payroll and taxes What’s the sales tax?
Inventory word problem
The worksheet might look something like this.
You work in the bookstore. You have to do an inventory of some new books. You count the books and find that you have 85 copies of Side by Side2, 120 copies of Focus on Grammar, and 165 copies of Going Places Book 1. Side by Side costs 21.95 each. Focus on Grammar costs 25.49. Going Places costs 19.35.
1.What is the total cost of all the books? ____________2.How many total books are there? _____________
Mileage Expense Report
Payroll – reading the pay stub plus
J&J Construction
Period: 2/1/2004 Employee Name Jay Adams Employee ID 1
Tax Status 1 Hours Worked 35
Hourly Rate $10.00 Overtime Rate $15.00 Sick Hours 1
Social Security Tax $32.13 Federal Income Tax $127.50 Vacation Hours 0
Medicare Tax $7.40 State Tax $11.73 Overtime Hours 10
Insurance Deduction $40.00 Union Dues $20.00 Gross Pay $510.00
Total Taxes and Regular Deductions $238.76
Total Taxes and Deductions
$238.76
Net Pay $271.25
Statistics Class surveys
Just Ask JeevesThough Jeeves, himself, has retired, you can still use ask.com to find information by writing regular English questions. Students get to practice writing wh-questions.
Create a graph in Excel
$- $1,000 $2,000 $3,000 $4,000 $5,000 $6,000 $7,000 $8,000 $9,000 $10,000
Nicaragua
Honduras
Guatemala
Armenia
El Salvador
China
Peru
Mexico
GDP per capita
Students compile their data from the Ask.com exercise into a chart. They also do a writing activity, describing the data using comparatives/superlatives.
Demographics
Infoplease.com/countries
Activities with Infoplease
Another great stats site www.nationmaster.com
These stats are great for guessing games!
More Math web links
Helping your Children learn Math http://www.ed.gov/pubs/parents/Math/
index.html Good examples of math activities common in “whole math” curricula.
The Math Forum @ Drexel University http://mathforum.org/ Good resource on
everything in math ed for teachers, students, parents, and everyone else.
Measurements
Area, Distance, Temperature, Speed, others
Volumes, weights, size
Sports
Sports Stats Who’s the most underpaid player in MLB
today? (according to some commentator guy I just heard on TV) but then this is just an example of what you can do: You hear this stuff all the time, so the more current, the better. Questions relating to sports salaries are of interest even to the non-sports person.