Our Research Article Got Published Today!

Happy Friday! Our research article got published today!!! 🥳🎉

Working memory (WM) is an important factor in children’s mathematical word problem-solving accuracy. WM can be thought of as the small amount of information that can be held in mind and used in the execution of cognitive tasks, in contrast with long-term memory, which is the vast amount of information saved in one’s life. In general, children with higher levels of WM proficiency tend to do well on mathematical word problem solving (WPS) measures. Despite knowing the importance of WM to math performance, little research has included emergent bilingual children (i.e., English learners) whose first language is Spanish.

In this study, we find that both phonological short-term memory (STM) and the executive component of working memory (WM) play a unique and significant developmental role in emergent bilingual children’s mathematical word problem solving. The two components are not only structurally different, but they also contribute to distinct types of growth in mathematical problem solving. In addition, the verbal components of WM (phonological STM and executive WM) can contribute jointly (i.e., interact) in predictions of mathematical probiem-solving growth within the second language system. We also found there are significant benefits of first language- L1 processing (Spanish in this case) in WM that contribute to the rate of growth in the second language-L2 (English) WM and L2 mathematical WPS. These findings have implications for bilingual instruction aimed at strengthening L1 WM in terms of its impact on mathematical WPS in the child’s developing second language. 🧠

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