RUME 27
2025
Alexandria, Virginia
“When I Write in English, it doesn't touch my heart”: Bilingual Graduate Students’ Language Switching in Mathematical Understanding
Page: 206
Bilingual students are an integral part of the mathematical graduate education system, so understanding their perspective on learning mathematics is important to ensure they are provided proper support. While many students learn undergraduate mathematics in English, some graduate students’ first exposure happens at the upper undergraduate or graduate level, introducing additional challenges. The purpose of this study is to discover reasons for bilingual graduate students’ language switching when understanding and experiencing mathematics. All four bilingual participants were in a math PhD program and acquired their undergraduate degrees outside of the United States in their respective languages. The results revealed that students switch languages not only between reading textbooks or during lectures, but also when working on solving mathematical problems and internalizing difficult concepts.