The emphasis should be put on the active participation of students since learning mathematics is a continuing process of obtaining mathematical knowledge. Such learning comes to be the process of appropriating the mathematical knowledge. Learner shoul...
The emphasis should be put on the active participation of students since learning mathematics is a continuing process of obtaining mathematical knowledge. Such learning comes to be the process of appropriating the mathematical knowledge. Learner should have the experience of constructing, using, applying the mathematical knowledge that he underwent with the help of teacher and then with the help of himself/herself. To construct the knowledge with the help of himself/herself means that it requires the spontaneous and active participation of learner. To use the knowledge means that the learner uses it for the communication and the intellectual activity. To apply the knowledge means to discover the new mathematical relations, to apply them to everyday life, and to show them to other people on the foundation of the mathematical knowledge obtained by learner.
To appropriate the mathematical knowledge, learner needs language. In mathematics, consisted of original symbols and special terms, the language is not only the mathematical knowledge itself, but also the tool assessing the appropriation of knowledge. It enables learner to think in the process of appropriation of mathematical knowledge and to use and apply mathematical knowledge not only as a mental tool, but also as a cultural tool of mathematics society. Thus, this study will consider the present state of learning the mathematics language, the meta-knowledge for mathematics language needed to show the appropriation of knowledge, and the process that learner represents and interprets language in learning mathematics, and then suggest the plan of teaching and learning mathematics for the appropriation of knowledge.
Language as a representation that indicates the mathematical object and needs the interpretation, is categorized to signs. Consideration on language in this study is based on the semiotics which make a research concerning the phenomena of communication and signification. In accordance with Peirce' triadic model that is consisted of interpretant, object(referent), and representamen(sign), we analyse the mathematics language according to syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Also, this study will suggest the method of teaching and learning mathematics that facilitates the interactions of the representation and the interpretation of mathematical language based on the interactionism. Interactionism is an epistemology that explicates how communication occurs in the social context of mathematics classes and how linguistic interaction should be.
According to Vygotsky, the functions of language are classified as signaling vs. signifying, social vs. personal, communication vs. intellect, and indicative vs. symbolic. After appropriating the mathematical knowledge, the language has the signifying, intellect, and symbolic functions. We established the criteria of appropriation of mathematical knowledge. Above all, the criteria that show the appropriation of the mathematical language as the mathematical knowledge are as follows: to know and use the rule of mathematical language correctly, to understand its meaning, and to interpret and use it appropriately in the context, which is setup by syntax, semantics, and pragmatics. Next, the criteria that show the appropriation of most of the mathematical knowledges are established by the function of language. By the intellectual function of language, the first was to represent the mathematical knowledge and the relation of ideas or languages using the mathematical language, the second was to translate the mathematical representations of symbol and natural language as well as visual signs to other mathematical representation and to interpret those, and the third was to choose and describe the suitable language in coincidence with the use aims. By the signifying function, the forth was to show his/her own knowledge and by the symbolic function, the fifth is to discover the new relation of ideas or languages based on the mathematical knowledge. In terms of these criteria, I constructed this study's contents.
When I investigated the present state of language as the mathematical knowledge, I searched that there were two methods that language was approached to students, representational or inquiringly. Both were sound theoretically but teachers must guide the shortened process of textbook in detail. The organization of language in middle school mathematics textbook lacked the pragmatic contents. When I investigated the equal symbol(=) as a case of mathematical language, students committed the equivalent error and the labelling error syntactically, and pragmatically didn't do well interpreting the equal symbol in accordance with the situation.
For the meta-knowledge for the mathematical language of the second and the third criterion, I investigated the levels of mathematics languages. I found that the levels created by this study was hierarchic, students stayed in the else levels understanding each concept and used else level's language each items. For the forth criterion, I considered the functional grammar and the rhetoric, and analyzed the proof text of textbook, teachers, and student. Teacher's and student's text followed the textbook, but lacked the skills in using language. For the fifth criterion, I considered the metaphor and the metonym under the abduction reasoning that was significant of the discovery of new facts.
Finally, I observed and analyzed the learning process and interviewed 4 students so that I saw how they represented and interpreted for themselves. Students performed the detailed representing and interpreting of signs and interpreted the process voluntarily. But they chose the wrong interpretant, depended on the templates of the known signs, not based on the logic and didn't say persuasively. It was needed that students experienced the self-reflection with the conviction for validity. On the foundation of these results, I suggest the followings.
For learning the mathematics language as a mathematical knowledge, we must research the teaching and learning method that learners exchange their opinions with others and reflect own thought on the pragmatics integrating syntactics and semantics. And to learn the mathematical communication and the meta-knowledge for mathematics language pragmatically, learner should experience the IZPD that teacher helps him/her, the ZPP that he/she solves and reflects problems with the help of self, and the ZAD that he/she helps the disabled others, and which must be verified for the effects.