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

Language Ability Accounts for Ethnic Difference in Mathematics Achievement

Jiaxin Cui  1   2 , Liting Lv  1 , Huibo Du  1 , Zhanling Cui  1 , Xinlin Zhou  2
Affiliations

Language Ability Accounts for Ethnic Difference in Mathematics Achievement

Jiaxin Cui et al. Front Psychol. .

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.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Schematic representation of tests used in the current study.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Differences in the mean of the standardized residuals for subtraction and self-adapted math achievement between Han and minority elementary school students for fourth grade (top) and fifth grade (bottom) after controlling for age, gender (Step 1), choice reaction time, non-verbal matrix reasoning, and mental rotation (Step 2), sentence completion, and self-adapted reading comprehension (Step 3).
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