LANGUAGE OF FIRST NUMERACY : THE PERSISTENCE OF LANGUAGE EFFECTS IN MENTAL ARITHMETIC AMONG ENGLISH-MANDARIN BILINGUALS

Abstract

Language of First Numeracy (LFN) is defined as the language that was first used to acquire basic number concepts and arithmetic operations. Anecdotal evidence suggests that bilinguals tend to prefer their LFN for mental arithmetic, even though that language may not be their overall more competent language. The lack of systematic evidence motivated this present study, which had two aims. Firstly, it attempted to systematically document the LFN effect. Secondly, it hoped to explain why the effect exists with reference to theories of number representation. Two theories-the abstract modular (advocated by McCloskey et al.) vs. the specific-integrated models (advocated by Campbell and Clark) were discussed, the latter being more consistent with the LFN effect. A qualitative research involving English-Mandarin bilinguals was conducted to provide some tentative hypotheses. An experiment was subsequently conducted to test the existence and possible explanations for the effect. The results suggested the existence of the LFN phenomenon, and gave support to the specific-integrated model. The theoretical and practical implications were discussed.