The influence of linguistic background on early representations of multiplicative comparison

Linguistic aspects involved in young children's interpretation of multiplicative comparison situations are investigated by comparing the answers provided by children aged 5-6 years old from three different countries: Australia, Italy, and Israel. Two tasks with different wording are used to analyse how language differences affect children's performance in terms of number of correct answers and most common wrong answers. The study shows that the number of children who can provide correct answers to multiplicative comparison tasks before their formal introduction change significantly according to the linguistic background. Furthermore, the analysis of wrong answers suggests that several possible linguistic factors may intervene including vocabulary knowledge, familiarity with phrases, and differences in the way that languages convey multiplicative meanings.