The impact of writing assignments in mathematics classes on language minority students' performance

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of writing assignments on language minority students' performance in mathematics classes. There were 120 participants in this study; the participants were thirty-two language minority students and eighty-eight native English-speaking students chosen from the finite mathematics and the basic statistics classes at the American University in Washington DC. The experiment was conducted in the fall semester of 1997. The treatment of the study was composed of writing assignments designed by the researcher given to the students in every class session except whenever they had to take an exam. The assignments were designed to conform to mathematical concepts covered in the respective course during the semester. The writing assignments were intended to enhance the students' understanding of the mathematical concepts and to improve the students' analytical skills and problem-solving techniques. A pretest exam, two in-class exams, a final exam, an attitude questionnaire, and personal interviews were used to collect data about the participants. The scores of the pretest exam were used to determine mathematical preparation level of the participants prior to the treatment. The two in-class exam scores and the final exam score were compared to the pretest to evaluate whether the writing assignments had any effect on the language minority students' mathematical performance. An attitude questionnaire and interview protocol were designed by the researcher to determine the effect of the treatment on the students' attitude toward mathematics and toward using writing to learn mathematics. Comparisons were made between the scores of the language minority students and the native English-speaking students in the control group, as well as the experimental group. The results of the comparisons illustrated that the treatment did not have a significant effect on the language minority students' performance. There was not enough evidence to suggest the language minority students benefited more than the native English-speaking students as a result of the treatment.