How language and culture affect the learning of fractions: A case study in the Kingdom of Tonga

Abstract

In this paper, I look at how different cultural practices go hand in hand with different discourses and how the two of them together have an impact on the learning of certain formal mathematical ideas. The findings are based on fieldwork carried out in the Kingdom of Tonga in 2011, with the aim of answering the question: How do the Tongan language and Tongan cultural practices shape discourses on fractions? I examine the place of fractions in the Tongan community of discourse. Importantly, the findings provide strong evidence to support the classical idea of linguistic relativism in the form of an updated version of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis.