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I'm asking solely about the direction whether studying math ⇒ improves your competence at acquire second languages (L2). "University math" signifies math that an undergraduate math major would take in university.

I'm NOT asking about 1. L1 acquisition.

  1. or the other direction, whether your math skills are improved ⇐ acquiring second languages. "While bilinguals and monolinguals solved the problems with equal accuracy and took about the same amount of time on arithmetic with familiar sets of operations, bilinguals beat out monolinguals, on average, by about half a second on novel problems."
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    A fine question, even if it is unlikely nobody has researched this. Do you have a reason to assume that mathematics would be particularly helpful? In general, transfer effects from learning mathematics are small, as far as I know. – Tommi Jul 19 '21 at 10:01
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    A quick search finds this as a source that might have something: https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2010-24814-001 – Tommi Jul 19 '21 at 10:05
  • A very quick search does not find a relevant article; effect of language on mathematics learning is much more popular as a research question than the converse. – Tommi Jul 19 '21 at 10:10
  • @Tommi "Do you have a reason to assume that mathematics would be particularly helpful?" Not from any peer reviewed journal. I've heard this contention from various teachers and professors. –  Jul 20 '21 at 04:23
  • Only if the math is taught in the language you wish to acquire. Otherwise, it is not helpful. All languages are different. – Lambie Jul 20 '21 at 13:55

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