International collaboration of mathematicians, linguists and educators shows results (dedicated to Lobachevsky Year at Kazan University)

The majority of bilingual learners all over the world face two basic difficulties.

Firstly, they have to use second language to study subjects. Secondly, at the same time they are studying second language as a school subject that is cognitively demanding.

Cultural and linguistic diversity of humanity is an objective reality. That is way all around the world scholars, educators, politicians and community members show interest in this problem.

The International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) that is aimed at enhancing the quality of mathematics education is also interested in this issue. International conferences and research programs are held under the aegis of ICMI.
The research program «Mathematics education and linguistic diversity» has been carrying out since 2011. The representatives of more than 57 countries take part in this research. Russia is represented by Salekhova Leila Leonardovna, the head of the department of educational technologies and information systems in philology, Leo Tolstoy Institute of Philology and Intercultural Communication. Scholars from Russia, the USA, Canada, Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Malaysia, New Zealand, Brazil, South Africa, etc. constitute the international team.

The problems of teaching and studying mathematics in a multilingual environment is of global importance, but the research shows that sociocultural, political and socio-economic contexts differ greatly from country to country. The results of the international team collaboration are published in a monograph “Mathematics Education and Language Diversity”, Springer. The monograph describes approaches to implementing multilingual mathematics education around the world.