Abstract: Abstract: 978 primary school pupils aged 11 years old from six National schools (NS) and six Chinese vernacular schools (CS) participated in a study that investigated pupils’ language preference in multilingual mathematics classrooms. Data were collected using questionnaires and measured in percentage scores. The significant differences were verified using chi-square tests. Results showed that the majority of NS pupils preferred to use English to do mathematics and opted for either Malay or Bilingual (Malay and English) in teaching, questioning, and discussing. The CS pupils preferred mainly Mandarin at all times. The resulting reasons were found to associate with cognitive, affective and psycho-social elements while problems faced by pupils were mainly English language problems, mathematics problems, personal and teacher factor.

Key words: Mathematics discourse; Primary school mathematics; Multilingual classroom; Pupils’ language preference; Language of instruction.