The effect of language transparency on the development of base-ten comprehension
(2026) Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society — Location: Padova, Italy (23.June.2026)
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- Introduction: Languages vary significantly regarding the degree of transparency to base-ten of their verbal number systems. In many Asian languages, verbal numbers express explicitly their underlying decimal structure (e.g., “78” is “seven-ten-eight”) whereas most Western languages exhibit varying degrees of opacity either through specific lexicons for teens and decades (e.g., “twelve”, “twenty”) or through decade-units order (e.g., “78” expressed as “eight and seventy” in Dutch). It is still debated whether transparency to base-ten influences the development of the understanding of the base-ten structure of numbers due to a lack of control of possible confound cultural and educational factors in previous studies. The development of base-ten conceptions of numbers has been considered, both theoretically and empirically, as a function of the powers of ten defining the number, starting with decades (two-digit numbers), followed by hundreds (three-digit numbers), and so on. However, this assumption has been challenged since Vasilyeva et al. (2015) reported as size effect within two-digit numbers in preschool children. Research aims: Our study aims to address the language transparency effect debate and to explore base-ten acquisition across the range of two-digit numbers. Specifically, we investigate whether number size effects are modulated by the transparency of the verbal number system Materials and Methods: We conducted a crosslinguistic study with Vietnamese, Dutch-speaking Belgian and French-speaking Belgian first graders on a large spectrum of base-ten tasks (base-ten block representation task, base-ten counting, transcoding, …), controlling for general cognitive ability, arithmetic level, home numeracy and socio-economic status. First-graders were tested to minimize the influence of formal schooling. Success rates and the strategies used by children were analyzed, with particular attention to strategies reflecting more elaborate base-ten conceptions. Results: Our results suggest interlanguage differences, particularly on larger two-digit numbers, regarding both success rates and base-ten strategies use with success. Variations across number ranges in two-digit numbers were highlighted across tasks. Larger numbers led to more errors and less use of elaborated strategies. Crucially, an interaction between language group and number size was found. Children speaking opaque languages exhibited a stronger size effect than in the Vietnamese group, in which this effect was reduced or even absent. Discussion: The size effect supports the idea of a progressive acquisition of base-ten within two-digit numbers. Its modulation by language transparency suggests that the irregularity and lexical complexity of opaque languages hinder performance, pointing to a lexical rather than purely conceptual origin of the observed cross-linguistic differences.
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Geuquet, C., Masson, N., De Smedt, B., Lê, M.-L., & Noël, M.-P. (2026). The effect of language transparency on the development of base-ten comprehension. Mathematical Cognition and Learning Society, Padova, Italy. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/272393