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People who speak more than one language fluently will process maths (yes, that word is correct: very British!) differently when they switch between languages, a new study has found. The study examined Belgians who are dual-fluent in German and French. While they were able to solve the simple tasks with equal proficiency, they took longer to calculate the complex task in French and made more errors than they did when doing the identical task in German. Different regions of the brain were in use when the participants were solving problems in different languages--no surprise, more cognitive effort was needed when using a second language.

I love the way this guy writes about math. I really understand math as a language because of him. I wish I'd had him as a teacher.

This article talks about how even though learning how to program a computer seems like learning a new language, computer language is actually processed through a different area of the brain than when language is processed. It says that it activates the multiple demand network, which is also activated by complex cognitive tasks such as solving math problems or crossword puzzles. However, it appears to rely on different parts of the network than math or logic problems do, which suggests that coding does not precisely replicate the cognitive demands of mathematics either. The article says that researchers didn't find any regions that appear to be exclusively devoted to programming. They also suggest that understanding computer code cannot be categorized as a language-based or math-based skill. Instead, they think it might require a combination of both skills, even though the brain regions don't reflect it.

What do you get when you cross a mafia mobster with a sociologist? An offer you can't understand. It's an old joke, and you could substitute "sociologist" with just about any other "ologist" - the broader point being that professions use language in ways that make it hard for outsiders to understand.

Language isn't only a way of communication, but it is the basis of many different aspects of life. Both science and math are languages of their own, and to be able to understand the style of language can help your brain to think in different ways for science and math.

"Susan Levine finds that simply repeating the numbers isn't as good as helping kids understand what they mean... "Counting objects and saying, 'Oh, you have four cars: one, two, three, four,' while you point at them - seems to be better," Levine says."

"Psychologists had already suspected that language was important for understanding numbers. Earlier studies of two tribes in the Amazon - one that had no words for numbers greater than five and another whose counting system seemed to go "one, two, many" - showed that people in those tribes had trouble reporting exactly how many objects were placed in front of them. But in those cultures, which don't have monetary systems, there might be no need to represent large numbers exactly. The question posed was whether language kept those Amazonian people from counting, or a lack of cultural pressure. To address that question, Spaepen and colleagues turned to Nicaraguan homesigners, deaf people who communicate with their hearing friends and relatives entirely through made-up hand gestures."

"Frank said, "all of that leaves open the question of whether language is really the only way to represent numbers." Mental Abacus, or MA, suggests the answer is no. It advises practitioners to visualize a 400-year-old style of abacus known as a soroban. Students often flick their fingers when they calculate, miming the movement of abacus beads."

Check this article out to see why experts think it's beneficial to be bilingual, but learn math in English

A connection has been found between students who study foreign language and higher SAT scores. For each additional year that students study a foreign language, they are expected to perform better on both the math and language portions of the SAT. Although the SAT is not a direct measure of intelligence by any means, this gives evidence to support that studying a foreign language helps develop both math and English language skills. I would be interested in seeing how foreign language study affects IQ Test scores.

Interesting article about researchers who are looking at geometry as its own language that might be unique to humans. Combines information about mathematics, linguistics, and AI, and how language might have developed to represent things as well as communicate.

palindrome-a phrase that reads the same forward or backward. Discover the mathematical properties of an interesting phrase.

Here are seven random numbers. Sort of like a telephone number, but arranged vertically. Take a glance - just a glance - then pause, take out a piece of paper and see how many you can recall. Done? According to the French neurologist and mathematician Stanislas Dehaene, about 50 percent of English speakers can remember all seven numbers.

A mathematician friend shared this article with me. A reading protocol is a set of strategies that a reader must use in order to benefit fully from reading the text. Mathematics has a reading protocol all its own, and just as we learn to read literature, we should learn to read mathematics. Students need to learn how to read mathematics, in the same way they learn how to read a novel or a poem, listen to music, or view a painting.

Memrise is a British technology start-up that makes vocabulary learning into a fast, effective, and fun game. A million people are already learning on the platform and, with monthly active users growing at 30 per cent month-on-month, it is one of the fastest growing learning tools in the world. Free online learning and teaching site, with an associated mobile app. The language learning modules combine neuroscience principles, fun online-gaming-style leveling-up and leaderboards, and a social community. You can learn a bunch of different languages--200, in fact--from Chinese to Finnish to Arabic to French (Macedonian or Xhosa, anyone?), as well as content in other subjects: math and science, arts and literature... I'll keep you posted on whether it works by trying to learn a new language or several. I did check out the Chinese language component, and it seems legitimate so far... There's also a unit on "Brain and Mind" that would be of use to WRU students.

"Chinese speakers can download nine numbers in two seconds, English speakers only seven. Dehaene thinks our brains scoop up information in two-second gulps, or loops, so the Chinese are regularly getting a number-retention advantage just because their number words are shorter."

"I am collecting number systems of world languages. The languages shown below are listed according to the complexity of the way of counting numbers..."

Schoolhouse Rock is a series of educational music videos covering anything from math to history. Some examples include, "Three is a Magic Number," and "Conjunction Junction." The idea is that putting educational concepts to catchy tunes will enable students to learn/remember them more easily.