EDUC4105

As I started to read this paper, I couldn’t help but think that the symbols the authors refer to as ‘Mathematish’ form proper English sentences and so isn’t really another language. It wasn’t until the section of comparisons of Mathematish and English that I became more convinced. The sentences formed by equations do have certain structure whereby there must be meaningful symbols on either side of the = symbol/sign. That is an interesting point – why do we use the word ’sign’ to describe Mathematical symbols in general communication?

Anyway, I think that since Mathematish does have a certain form of grammar that obeys a set of rules that we are teaching students to use another language. The main difficulty I see for students is in translating word problems into Mathematish. The use of the word ‘translate’ when discussing word problems could be beneficial for students to understand that they are indeed dealing with alternative forms of language, which is difficult. Hopefully this will result in the complaint of  “I’m not good at Maths” meaning something more like “I find it difficult to read/speak/translate in Maths”.

It was interesting to read about the multiple registers that all contribute to create meaning in Mathematics. The combination of written language (including technical words and symbols) and oral and visual representations need to be interpreted by learners of Mathematics to understand instructions, exercises and problems.

A good point was made that it is the teacher’s oral communication that helps students to construct meaning from written Mathematical words and symbols. This has great implications for explanations will impact on the students’ “internal chatter” and how they think about language. Teachers need to be very careful and precise in explaining language use because this is the initial source that students form understanding from.