This study investigates linguistically diverse elementary mathematics classrooms, focusing on potential for dialogic discourse (constructing meaning through dialogue) and alignment with Common Core Standards for Mathematical Practice (SMPs). Constant comparative methods and discourse analysis of field notes, video recordings, and transcriptions…

Mathematical knowledge in classrooms is mediated through the use of both technical and informal language. This paper is a report of a study of the language use of teachers as they examine students' work and discuss teaching for the topic of fraction operations. This provides a window on their pedagogical content knowledge and also on the way in…

This paper presents a preliminary study of three six year-old children's use of functional language when engaging collaboratively on a mathematics task. The analysis is presented as an illustration of young children's authority and agency in mathematics as evidenced in their discourse. Modality, as a function of language, was seen to indicate…

This paper focuses on lexical ambiguity. With respect to mathematics classrooms, polysemy has been mentioned as one of the principal concerns, namely certain words having different but related meanings. It may also happen when different meanings of a word are presumed in everyday context and in another environment, in this case in mathematics…

This paper documents a culturally specific language strength for developing number sense among Oneida- and Lakota-speaking primary students. Qualitative research methods scaffolded this research study: culture informants were interviewed and interviews were transcribed and coded for analysis; culture documents were selected for analysis; and…

The author presents an organizational model which exhibits relationships among preservcie teachers' skills in the use of interpretation of logical connectives in mathematical contexts. The model also provides direction to teahcers of courses on mathematics and mathematics methods who seek to acquaint their students with those notions of logic…

Students who have the necessary computational skills can solve word problems in mathematics only if they can comprehend the language of the problem. In order to best teach reading comprehension of mathematical word problems, teachers should consider the following steps: (1) prepare for teaching a problem by analyzing the ways the problem can be…

The paper considers a teaching experiment carried out with secondary school students (9th grade), who face modelling tasks to approach some basic concepts of algebra and early calculus. The focus is on an embodied analysis of students' cognitive processes. The analysis highlights the use of metaphors as a means of sharing knowledge. (Contains 2…

Language syntax is discussed, followed by an overview of algbraic syntax. Evaluating algebraic expressions was chosen as the means to investigate the psychological basis of syntactic skills. Subjects' ability to perform evaluative tasks appropriately using standard algebraic notation was ascertained; then similar tasks were presented using a…

Language contact and the resulting interference has long been diagnosed as one of the primary forces behind language change. In cases of multilingual contact within geographically restricted areas, converging changes of the languages in contact have been uncovered and described. The geographic areas characterized by such linguistic situations came…

An ethnomathematics approach to the curriculum is advocated as a means of addressing the problems faced by limited English proficient (LEP) students who experience difficulties in learning mathematics. It is noted that the problems may have little to do with difficulties in processing mathematical ideas. When LEP students are from different…

Although mathematics can be described as a formalized language, the signs and symbols of mathematical representation are subject to individual interpretation, which, if inaccurate, can lead to inhibitions about and interferences with the mathematical learning process. The purpose of this study was to explore communication in an intermediate-level…

A large proportion of college students majoring in science are unable to translate even simple sentences into algebraic equations. Given the following sentence, "There are six times as many students (S) as professors (P) at this university," 37% of 150 freshmen engineering students in a study conducted in 1981 by Clement, Lockhead, and Monk wrote…

The usefulness of a "lexical universe" in the development of verbal reasoning tests was studied. The lexical universe, which is a comprehensive listing of words and their frequencies based on a collection of machine-readable texts exceeding 14 million words of running text, is an outcome of a 1987 College Board study of the language in…

This paper argues that two serious flaws are present in current mathematics learning and instruction: (1) the lack of meaning in students' mathematical knowledge; and (2) students' inability to communicate using appropriate mathematical language and ideas. The study explored the relationship between mathematics language facility and mathematics…