Learning Numbers in Different Languages: Chinese versus Malay

Abstract

This study investigated the impact of learning to use the Chinese or theThis study explores the structure of names for numbers in two languages: Malay and Chinese. It is hypothesized from past research that naming systems for numbers influences how a child learns and thinks about numbers. The learner's performance on number tasks varies depending on the regularity of the number system that one has to learn. A more transparent number system would logically be easier to acquire. The student would thus progress more quickly in their mastery of the number system. The Malay and Chinese counting systems are more regular than English, but the Chinese system is the more regular of the two. As seen in Figure 1, the same word is used for 10 in Chinese, in the composition of numbers in the teens and in all other decades. In Malay, the word for 10, "sepuluh" (literally one ten) is not used in the composition of the teens; "puluh" is used in the composition of other decades, whereas in Chinese the same word is used. In Malay, the word for 1 is used with decades (e.g. 21, 31), but changed in the number labels for 10 and 11. The order in which the decades and units are named also differs between the systems: in Chinese both for the teens and for the other decades, the name of the unit is pronounced after the decade (as in twenty one) whereas in Malay