Academic language features in mathematical modelling tasks raise difficulty in reading comprehension for secondary students
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In: European Journal of Applied Linguistics, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2025, p. 227-251.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Academic language features in mathematical modelling tasks raise difficulty in reading comprehension for secondary students
AU - Heine, Lena
AU - Ehmke, Timo
AU - Leiss, Dominik
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 the author(s), published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston.
PY - 2025
Y1 - 2025
N2 - School-related reading requirements can be challenging and are entwined with the general ability to perform academically in subjects such as mathematics. However, it is empirically still unclear in how far linguistic requirements affect regular secondary school students ability to interact with subject content. The project reported here investigated the effects of academic German language characteristics on text comprehension difficulty of regular students in a German comprehensive school (“Gesamtschule”, 10 % heritage language users) in 25 text-heavy modelling tasks on mathematical functions. For each text, three versions with different amounts of academic lexical and syntactic features were constructed, while the content was not altered. N = 407 regular secondary school students (grades 7–10) solved text comprehension items specifically relevant to the mathematical task solution. General measures of language and mathematical proficiency and cultural capital were elicited. The main findings were that a), considerable numbers of students did in fact experience text comprehension difficulties of mathematically relevant information in mathematical modeling tasks; b), a systematic increase of academic language features in the task texts increased comprehension difficulty even when students characteristics were controlled for; c) higher grade level, mathematical and general language competence, and male gender, predicted strongly the ability to solve the comprehension items correctly; and d) number of books at home and language use at home did not moderate text comprehension after all other variables were controlled.
AB - School-related reading requirements can be challenging and are entwined with the general ability to perform academically in subjects such as mathematics. However, it is empirically still unclear in how far linguistic requirements affect regular secondary school students ability to interact with subject content. The project reported here investigated the effects of academic German language characteristics on text comprehension difficulty of regular students in a German comprehensive school (“Gesamtschule”, 10 % heritage language users) in 25 text-heavy modelling tasks on mathematical functions. For each text, three versions with different amounts of academic lexical and syntactic features were constructed, while the content was not altered. N = 407 regular secondary school students (grades 7–10) solved text comprehension items specifically relevant to the mathematical task solution. General measures of language and mathematical proficiency and cultural capital were elicited. The main findings were that a), considerable numbers of students did in fact experience text comprehension difficulties of mathematically relevant information in mathematical modeling tasks; b), a systematic increase of academic language features in the task texts increased comprehension difficulty even when students characteristics were controlled for; c) higher grade level, mathematical and general language competence, and male gender, predicted strongly the ability to solve the comprehension items correctly; and d) number of books at home and language use at home did not moderate text comprehension after all other variables were controlled.
KW - Empirical education research
KW - Academic language proficiency
KW - Academic German
KW - language in mathematics
KW - secondary school
KW - assessing reading comprehension
KW - Didactics of Mathematics
KW - Language Studies
KW - Didactics of the German language
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105018345220&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1515/eujal-2023-0018
DO - 10.1515/eujal-2023-0018
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 13
SP - 227
EP - 251
JO - European Journal of Applied Linguistics
JF - European Journal of Applied Linguistics
SN - 2192-9521
IS - 1
ER -