Home | How It Works | Stats Login | Register         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!) 1. I believe that Virgil suffered from a little "math anxiety," but his main issue was total immersion. 2. It seems as if she only observed him. Maybe she should have simply asked him what's going on? What can I do to help? She wrote him off as needing Special Education before she tried to help him herself. I think that if she had simply asked him what was going on, he would have been able to tell her that he was lost. He had trouble with math before, but this coupled with some language barriers has left him lost and confused. Maybe she could get an ESOL teacher to help out, or a paraprofessional that speaks the same language. Maybe she could spend some one on one time with him and Google Translate. She could type the word problem into Google Translate and see if that helps Virgil connect to the problem. 3. Total language immersion was fine, except for math. It was the subject itself, coupled with a new language that left Virgil confused.