Talk data to me?

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Bonjour, kia ora, 你好 (안녕, こんにちは)

The teaching and research that informs this paper were conducted on the traditional lands of Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei, under te Tiriti o Waitangi, at Waipapa Taumata Rau, and of the Anishinaabe, the Haudenosaunee and the Mississaugas of the Credit, under the Dish with One Spoon treaty and, more recently, Treaty 13 between the Mississaugas and the British Crown, at the University of Toronto.

Additional teaching and learning experiences at Southwest University, China, also informed this work.

It is being presented here in Ōtākou, where Ngāi Tahu has rangatiratanga.

Original photo credit: Heidi Martin Photography

ELLs are not a monolith

👩🏻🎓 ELL = English Language Learner. You may be familiar with EAL (English as an Additional Language) or ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages). Multilingual learners may become a preferred term.

🈶 The majority of the ELL students I have taught have Chinese backgrounds (University of Toronto, University of Auckland, teaching at Southwest University 西南大学).

💰 This project is funded out of the money related to teaching into our Transnational Education Agreement programme with Southwest University 西南大学.

Why this matters now

• Global mobility: English is the lingua franca of academia, but our classrooms are linguistically diverse¹.
• Challenge: Students often pass technical language exams (like IELTS/TOEFL) but struggle with the specific communicative demands of doing statistics².
• Opportunity: Supporting ELLs isn’t just about “fixing” deficits; it’s about better teaching for everyone.

1. Altbach, P. G., et al. (2009). Trends in global higher education: Tracking an academic revolution. UNESCO.

2. Cheng, Y., & Hamid, M. O. (2025). Social impact of Gaokao in China. Language Testing in Asia.

Part 1: Teaching practices

Small changes

The power of pausing

• Myth: “If… I… just… speak… slowly… they… will… understand.”
  • Reality: This distorts natural rhythm and hinders learning¹.
• Suggestion: Speak at a natural pace, but insert strategic pauses at grammatical boundaries (commas, periods).
  • 1-3 seconds is often all it takes².
• Give the “Cognitive Cycle” time to spin: 1. Hear \(\rightarrow\) Translate \(\rightarrow\) Formulate answer \(\rightarrow\) Translate³.

1. Hayati, A. (2010). The Effect of Speech Rate on Listening Comprehension. Creative Education.

2. Blau, E. K. (1990). The effect of pauses on listening comprehension. TESOL Quarterly.

3. Lesser, L. M., & Winsor, M. S. (2009). English language learners in introductory statistics. Statistics Education Research Journal.

Instructions: Double double, less toil and trouble

• Challenge: Spoken instructions vanish into thin air.
  • If a student misses one word, they might miss the whole task.
• Suggestion: Provide instructions in two modes:
  1. Spoken
  2. Written (slides, handouts, annotation or board)
• Tip: Even for simple multiple-choice questions, visually indicate the correct answer (don’t just say it).

Navigating shared languages

• Translanguaging: Using one’s entire linguistic repertoire to make meaning¹.
• Tension:
  • Students may want to discuss concepts in their first/more fluent language (L1).
  • However, our assessments are usually in English.
  • Challenge: Instructors (even bilingual ones) often lack the technical vocab in L1 (e.g., “Heteroscedasticity”).
• Suggestions:
  • Use shared languages for encouragement.
  • Move to English for content to prepare for assessment.
  • Work with your tutors to make sure they have support and guidance.

1. García, O. (2009). Bilingual Education in the 21st Century: A Global Perspective. Wiley-Blackwell.

Part 2: Assessment

Design for fairness, not just testing.

Context comfort

• Challenge: Real data contexts enhance engagement and learning¹, but may rely on cultural knowledge (e.g., sports).
• Risk: We test cultural knowledge, not statistical ability.
• Immerse!:
  • Introduce test/exam contexts in a low-stakes setting first (class, lab, tutorial, untimed assessment).
  • Let students explore the data dictionary before the clock starts ticking².

1. Carver, R., et al. (2016). GAISE College Report 2016. American Statistical Association.

2. Fergusson, A., & Pfannkuch, M. (2022). Introducing high school statistics teachers to predictive modelling. Statistics Education Research Journal.

Part 3: Course design

Building supportive structures.

Communication workshops

• Challenge: Lexical ambiguity in statistics is hard (e.g., “Random”, “Significant”, “Confidence”)¹.
• Suggestion:
  • Dedicate workshop time to decoding instructions.
  • Teach “Hedging” language (e.g., “The data suggests…” vs “This proves…”)².
• Implementation: At the University of Toronto, the Faculty English Language Learner support team had funding to train TAs to run communication-focused workshops alongside technical ones.

1. Whitaker, D. (2016). Lexical Ambiguities in the Vocabulary of Statistics. International Journal for Mathematics Teaching and Learning.

2. Wishnoff, J. R. (2000). Hedging Your Bets. Second Language Studies.

Example: “Think-Pair-Share” in action

I used this in a Senior Data Science course in China.

1. Think (1 min): Silence. Display the question text. Allow processing time.
2. Pair (2 min): Discuss with a neighbor. Low stakes. Test logic in L1 or English.
3. Share (2 min): Use anonymous polling software (e.g., PollEverywhere).

Result: Engagement went from near-zero to 50-70%.

Summary

Next steps

We have received a te Whare Pūtaiao Faculty of Science Scholarship of Teaching and Learning grant to help us learn more from our students — watch this space!

Takeaways

You don’t need to overhaul your entire approach tomorrow. Start small:

1. Pause more.
2. Write down what you say, especially for activity instructions.
3. Immerse students in a context before testing them with it.

English Language Learners contribute to the diversity, excellence, and sustainability of our field.

🔗link.lizabolton.com

My marvellous RAs’ work

Jingdi’s literature review on assessment practices

Christy’s report on teaching practices

Ping’s resources for supporting TAs

Ping’s resources for supporting TAs (rationale)

Alt text

Unless otherwise stated, all images were created with Gemini 2.5. The following slides include text descriptions of the images. All images can be considered decorative.

Title page

An 8-bit style presentation slide with the title “Talk data to me?”. Two 8-bit characters, one with black hair and a red shirt on the left, and another with brown hair and a purple shirt on the right, stand on either side of a dark blue and light blue 8-bit wave design. The wave swaps direction between the two in a simple animation, as their mouths open and close. Below the wave, the text reads “Supporting English Language Learners in Statistics and Data Science” followed by a list of names under “Liza Bolton, Ping Huang, Christy Sun, Jingdi Sun with collaborators at the University of Toronto: Nathalie Moon, Samantha-Jo Caetano, J. Sparks, Quin Xie”.

Bonjour, kia ora, 你好 (안녕, こんにちは)

An 8-bit pixel art character with brown wavy hair and a light blue striped shirt sits in a chair, holding a white paper. Behind them is a bookshelf with colourful books and a Halloween pumpkin bucket. The character has an open mouth as if speaking.

ELLs are not a monolith

An 8-bit image of a spiralling tower with many levels, aiming to represent the Tower of Babel.

The power of pausing

An 8-bit pixel art image of an hour glass floating in space with planets and stars in the background.

Instructions: Double double, less toil and trouble

An 8-bit pixel art image of a pair of brown eye glasses, with the left lens reflecting writing in a book and the right lens reflecting a person with speech bubbles.

Context comfort

An 8-bit pixel art image of a smiling person mostly submersed in a hot spring pool.

Communication workshops

An 8-bit pixel art image of an open red tool box with a range of standard tools inside.

Next steps

An 8-bit pixel art image of two footprints.

Takeaways

An 8-bit pixel art image of a brown paper bag with some fries and food visible inside.