Language challenges and strategies for English Language Learners in statistics education: An overview of research in this field

Abstract

Despite the rapidly growing population of English Language Learners in schools, very little research has focused on understanding the challenges of English Language Learners in statistics education. This paper reviews research by statistics and mathematics educators to highlight some of the broad challenges faced by English Language Learners in statistics learning and teaching. The linguistic challenges include the vocabulary in academic statistics and linguistic features that may make statistical texts hard to understand and communicate. Next, the review outlines pedagogical strategies to help learners in statistics classrooms. The final section considers some issues arising out of the review and offers suggestions for practice and research.