Language and cultural issues in the teaching and learning of Whole Number Arithmetic

Language and culture play a common, key role in conveying concepts in mathematics teaching and learning for mathematical thinking development. Linguistic transparency can foster the construction of mathematical meanings and support the understanding that oc-curs in learning discourse. A cross-cultural examination of languages should thus allow us to understand linguistic supports or limitations that may interfere with students’ learning and teachers’ teaching of mathematics. This chapter examines number naming and structure across languages, and language issues related to whole-number structure, arithmetic opera-tions and key concepts of place value and equality from a linguistic perspective. It also spe-cifically considers how the Chinese language has been linked with Chinese arithmetic in an-cient and present times.