Language Ability Accounts for Ethnic Difference in Mathematics Achievement

Jiaxin Cui; Liting Lv; Huibo Du; Zhanling Cui; Xinlin Zhou

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2022.929719

Language Ability Accounts for Ethnic Difference in Mathematics Achievement

Front Psychol. 2022 Jul 22:13:929719. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.929719. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Jiaxin Cui^{1

2}, Liting Lv¹, Huibo Du¹, Zhanling Cui¹, Xinlin Zhou²

Affiliations

¹ College of Education, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience and Learning, Faculty of Psychology, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

The mathematics achievement of minority students has always been a focal point of educators in China. This study investigated the differences in mathematics achievement between Han and minority pupils to determine if there is any cognitive mechanism that can account for the discrepancy. We recruited 236 Han students and 272 minority students (including Uygur and Kazak) from the same primary schools. They were tested on mathematics achievement, language abilities, and general cognitive abilities. The results showed that Han pupils had better mathematics achievement scores and better Chinese language ability than minority students. After controlling for age, gender, and general cognitive abilities, there were still significant differences in mathematics achievement between Han and minority students. However, these differences disappeared after controlling for language ability. These results suggest that the relatively poor levels of mathematics achievement observed in minority students is related to poor Chinese language skills.

Keywords: ethnic difference; ethnic minority; language ability; mathematical achievement; mathematical cognition.