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Case: Math Anxiety? Virgil is an ESL (English as a Second Language) student who has acquired two languages in his upbringing. He is moving to the United States with his family. The entire family is anxious to learn English and the American way of life. Virgil's family is very proud of their heritage and cultural traditions. They have decided to learn English at school and work, but speak their other two languages at home. Virgil is an outgoing young man who experienced difficulties in learning mathematical concepts in his native country. He is hoping that math will be easier for him in the United States. Virgil's parents enroll him in Ms. Tucker's third grade classroom. Hearing the English language being spoken and observing his new environment frightens Virgil. Ms. Tucker decides to ignore Virgil's fearful facial expressions and allow him to be totally immersed in his new culture. She continues to teach the students exactly the way she has done in the past. After all, her teaching methods have been successful for many years. In the afternoon, when the classroom students begin to take out their textbooks with numbers printed on the cover, Virgil perceives that it is time for math. The same sinking feeling he experienced in his old school started to reoccur in his new classroom. Not only was the new language confusing, but the entire math period left Virgil feeling lost and uncomfortable. After a few weeks of math lessons, Ms. Tucker decides to refer Virgil to the Special Education director. It was obvious to Ms. Tucker that Virgil was not understanding the math lessons and he was scoring poorly on the assessments. She felt that perhaps Virgil had some learning disabilities which needed attention. While he was receiving special help with math, Ms. Tucker could conduct class as usual. Questions: 1. Did Virgil suffer from "math anxiety?" 2. What interventions could Ms. Tucker implement before coming to her conclusions about Virgil? 3. Was total language immersion what Virgil needed? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) Virgil previously had trouble in math in his home country, and this was only made worse by coming to a country where he did not speak the primary language. Ms. Tucker did not try to help him with math and English as much as she could have, but just continued to practice her old ways of teaching. Virgil gets very worried during school because he does not know exactly when math is coming next in the day. Ms. Tucker should have worked one on one with Virgil on his math. Virgil previously had problems with math, but not knowing how to speak English proficiently only made his anxiety worse. Ms. Tucker should have given Virgil the necessary help that he needed for both his English and math. She did not do this, but automatically assumed that he needed to be placed in special education. Language immersion would have been beneficial for Virgil to a point. He would have had a better time understanding what the math problems are asking, but he still would not have been able to solve the answers correctly. |
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