Psychological Sciences Research Institute, Université Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
Faculty of Psychology, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, National University of Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
PLoS One. 2020 Dec 7;15(12):e0243472. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0243472. eCollection 2020.
Several cross-sectional studies have suggested that the transparency of the number-naming system of East Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese) facilitates children's numerical development. The Vietnamese number-naming system also makes the base-10 system very explicit (eleven is "mười một," literally "ten-one," and thirty is "ba mươi," literally "three-ten"). In contrast, Western languages (English, French) include teen words (eleven to sixteen) and ten words (twenty to ninety) that make their counting systems less transparent. The main question addressed in this paper is: To what extent does a language's number-naming system impact preschoolers' numerical development? Our study participants comprised 104 Vietnamese and 104 French-speaking Belgian children between 3½ and 5½ years of age, as well as their parents. We tested the children on eight numerical tasks (counting, advanced counting, enumeration, Give-N, number-word comparison, collection comparison, addition, and approximate addition) and some general cognitive abilities (IQ and phonological loop by letter span). The parents completed a questionnaire on the frequency with which they stimulated their child's numeracy and literacy at home. The results indicated that Vietnamese children outperformed Belgian children only in counting. However, neither group differed in other symbolic or non-symbolic abilities, although Vietnamese parents tended to stimulate their child at home slightly more than Belgian parents. We concluded that the Vietnamese number-naming system's transparency led to faster acquisition of basic counting for preschoolers but did not support other more advanced numerical skills or non-symbolic numerical abilities. In addition, we extended the evidence that both transparent number-naming system and home numeracy influence young children's counting development.
几项横断面研究表明,东亚语言(汉语、日语)的数字命名系统的透明度有助于儿童的数字发展。越南的数字命名系统也使十进制系统非常明确(十一是“mười một”,字面意思是“十和一”,三十是“ba mươi”,字面意思是“三和十”)。相比之下,西方语言(英语、法语)包括 teen 词(十一到十六)和 ten 词(二十到九十),这使得它们的计数系统不太透明。本文主要探讨的问题是:语言的数字命名系统在多大程度上影响学龄前儿童的数字发展?我们的研究参与者包括 104 名 3 岁半到 5 岁半的越南儿童和 104 名说法语的比利时儿童,以及他们的父母。我们对孩子们进行了八项数字任务(数数、进阶数数、枚举、给数、数字词比较、集合比较、加法和近似加法)和一些一般认知能力(智商和语音环路的字母跨度)的测试。父母填写了一份问卷,内容是他们在家中刺激孩子数学和读写能力的频率。结果表明,越南儿童仅在数数方面的表现优于比利时儿童。然而,两组儿童在其他符号或非符号能力方面没有差异,尽管越南父母在家中刺激孩子的倾向略高于比利时父母。我们得出的结论是,越南数字命名系统的透明度使学龄前儿童更快地掌握了基本的数数能力,但并没有支持其他更高级的数字技能或非符号数字能力。此外,我们扩展了证据,表明透明的数字命名系统和家庭数学教育都影响幼儿的数数发展。