The Link between Language and Numeracy

语言和数字的关联

Being able to speak a language is the key to understanding numbers,scientists have discovered. A research project found that deaf people who had not learned a language containing symbols used for counting were unable to comprehend¹ any number greater than three. Experts said the reason was that they had not studied the familiar "count list" of one to ten that most people are taught when they are young.

科学家们已经发现，语言能力的高低是理解数字的关键。一项研究项目显示，失聪的人没有掌握关于语言符号的情况下，认识的数字不超过3个。专家分析，这其中的原因主要在于这些失聪的人在年幼的时候没有学会1到10该怎样数。

Children learn such a sequence even before they know what it means and it stays hard wired into their brain for the rest of their lives. The study is the first to identify the link between language and numeracy and was carried out by researchers at the University of Chicago.

儿童在开始学习数数时，只是按照顺序一个一个数下来，甚至并不知道这些数字所表示的意义。然而，这些数字好比硬性数据一样存储到他们的大脑硬盘中让他们在以后的生活中发挥作用。据悉，这个关于数字与语言的联系方面的研究是由芝加哥大学的研究人员领头的。

They studied deafi people from Nicaragua who had created their own unique sign language to talk to one another. These so called homesigners’did have numbers in their culture including a monetary² system, so any differences they exhibited wound have to solely³ be due to language.

科学家对来自尼加拉瓜的聋哑人做研究时发现，他们创造了自己独特的手语，将所要表达的意思传达给另一个人，这个被称之为他们自己的表达系统就是一种数字文化，包含货币系统。因此，接受试验的人所表现出来的不同都应归因于他们的语言表达能力的差异。

The first test involved asking them to answer which had the most value out of a 10-unit, 20-unit and 100-unit coin.

第一个试验就是让受试者区分10个货币单位、20个货币单位和100个货币单位的货币，哪个更有价值。

As they were familiar with their money, the test subjects were able to answer each question correctly.

因为他们非常熟悉他们所用的货币，所以测验中的这类问题，他们都能很准确地回答上来。

Things changed when were shown an animated⁴ video in which numbers played a key part, such as a story with ten sheep in a pen.

当研究人员在他们眼前播放一个画面活跃的视频，并且其中数字起着关键作用，类似于讲述一个10只羊圈在围栏里的故事，情况就发生变化了。

The researchers then asked the subjects to retell the story to a friend using their homesigns but as the numbers got bigger, they had increasing difficulty in making an accurate gesture with their hands.

看完后，研究人员要求受试者用他们的“表达系统”像他们的一个朋友复述这个故事，但是随着数字越来越大，他们的手指很难描绘出确切的意思，他们表达起来愈发费劲。

Finally, the test subjects were shown cards with different numbers of items on them and asked to give a gesture that represented the number of items

在最后一个试验，研究人员给测试者出示了一系列绘有数字的卡片，然后让他们用手语将卡片上的数字表达出来。

The homesigners were accurate only up to the number three,

结果是，他们能准确表达的数字最高是“3"。

The research team concluded that the problem understanding large numbers was not due to an inability to communicate them, but because they could not think about them.

研究小组得出的结论是:理解这种较大数字的障碍就在于语言的沟通，而这对他们来说是不可能的。

Susan Goldin Meadow⁵, a professor in psychology⁶ at Chicago University, said:It's not just the vocaibuiary words that matter, but understanding the relationships that underlie⁷ the words一the fact that "eight" is one more than "seven" and one less than "nine", Without having a set of number words to guide them, deaf homesigners in the study failed to understand that numbers build on each other in value.

来自芝加哥大学的心理学家苏珊·戈尔丁·梅多说:“语言表达能力强，指的不仅仅是词汇量的问题，更是理解到数字下更深层次的含义—事实就是+g”要比“7”大，比“9”小。没有一系列的基础数字去引导他们，聋哑人的表达是无法理解建构在此的数字的意义的。”