About this activity
Twelve maths terms matched across Spanish and English: sumar and add, restar and subtract, multiplicar and multiply, dividir and divide, número and number, mitad and half, mayor que and greater than, menor que and less than, figura and shape, triángulo and triangle, medir and measure, resultado and answer. A student who knows the maths in one language needs only the terms in the other.
How to use it in a session
Establish which language the student learned the concept in. A child who was taught subtraction in Spanish knows how to subtract and does not know the word subtract — that is a vocabulary gap, not a maths one, and working it as the latter wastes a great deal of time. Note the cognates: multiplicar and multiply, dividir and divide, número and number are nearly the same word and are free.
What to listen for
Watch mayor que and menor que, which are the two that carry a directional meaning rather than a label — greater than and less than have to be understood as a relation, and a student who translates the words without the relation will still get the questions wrong. Notice resultado and answer, which are not literal equivalents and are worth pointing out.
Carrying it home
Homework in maths is the material. Asking what the Spanish word is for a term in the English homework takes seconds and often reveals that the child knew the concept all along.
Questions
- Is this board bilingual?
- Yes, each pair has a Spanish and an English term. The page is in English so an English-speaking clinician can find and evaluate it.
- Is it free?
- Yes, no account needed to play.
- Why does this matter for maths performance?
- Because a student can know how to subtract and not know the English word for it. That looks like a maths difficulty on a test and is a vocabulary gap, which needs a completely different response.