Content (General): Numbers

Math is in many ways a universal language. Older foreign students, if helped with basic math vocabulary in English, may begin to excel in this area sooner than in any other. Success here will increase their confidence and motivation as they will be on a nearly equal basis with their peers.

Also, many of the number skills are survival skills--telling time, the value of money, etc.

The E.S.L. teacher or tutor need not be too concerned with teaching mathematical concepts. The primary responsibility is to teach the child as much math language as is appropriate to his/her age and conceptual level, as indicated by the classroom teacher. The content listed below can be taught early or as needed:

• Cardinal Numbers
  • Count from 1-100, count by 5s, count by 10s.
  • Understand zero, one thousand, etc.
  • Additional vocabulary that may be appropriate should be taught in the context of sentences: dozen, few, a lot of, many, much, more, none, some, count, number, numeral
• Ordinal Numbers
  • Count 1st-31st
  • Additional vocabulary: last, next
• Fractions (1/2, 1/4, 1/3, 2/3, 3/4, etc. as appropriate)
• Money
  • Relative value of coins and bills: penny, cent, nickel, dime, quarter, half-dollar, dollar
  • Monetary exchange: payment and making change. (Note: It is helpful for students to know what they can buy for a dollar. If a "store", restaurant, or similar activity is used, try to have somewhat accurate prices.)
  • Additional vocabulary: amount, bill, change, charge card, check, coin, money, price
• Time (see also Adverbs of Time)
  • To hour, half-hour, quarter hour, 5 minutes, minutes.
  • Time before the hour: It is 15 minutes to 10:00.
  • Syntax: He works from 8:00 to 5:00.
  • Additional vocabulary: century, day, hour, midnight, minute, moment, month, noon, second (as in second hand), time, week, year
  • Calendar and dates. Can use to introduce past and future tense.
    Today is Tuesday, May 29, 2005. Yesterday was Monday, May 28, 2005. Tomorrow will be Wednesday, May 30, 2005. etc.
• Shapes
  • Recognition of: circle, square, triangle, rectangle, diamond, oval
  • Additional vocabulary: angle, cone, globe, line, part, point, sides, tip, curved, round, straight, center, middle
• Math Functions
  • Addition: add, plus
  • Subtraction: subtract, minus
  • Multiplication: multiply, times
  • Division: divide, divided by
  • Additional vocabulary: double, equals, fact, figure, problem, triple
• Measurement. Remember that many students come from countries that use the metric system.
  • Height, length, width: inch, foot, yard, mile
  • Volume: teaspoon, tablespoon, cup, pint, quart, gallon
  • Weight: ounce, pound, ton
  • Temperature: degrees
  • Additional vocabulary: half, whole, liquid, area, perimeter
• Relationships
  • Right / left
  • Same / different / alike
  • Quantity / quality
  • Space / time
  • As big as... bigger than
  • Additional vocabulary: pattern, another, other

Note: When the teacher teaches this vocabulary to the entire class, the E.S.L. student learns it along with the regular class. In one case, a student was able to talk about square roots but not addition, because she had been taught about square roots in English, addition in her own language.

Go on to "Listening / Speaking"
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