ABSTRACT
Language is the primary vehicle for learning, instruction, and overall intellectual development. It is not only a means for communicating information, it is also a vehicle for helping learners broaden and deepen their understanding of important ideas. Unlike other subjects, mathematics itself is a language and has a “register.” The mathematics register refers to a subset of language composed of meaning appropriate to the communication of mathematical ideas. It includes the vocabulary used to express these ideas and the structures of sentences in which these vocabulary terms appear, and is distinctively different from other content-area registers. Specifically, the mathematics register includes unique vocabulary, syntax (sentence structure), semantic properties (truth conditions), and discourse (oral and written text) features. Researchers and educators have revealed many of the challenges associated with understanding the language of mathematics (e.g. Anstrom, 1999; Crandall, Dale, Rhodes, & Spanos, 1985; Dale and Cuevas, 1992; Kessler, Quinn, & Hayes, 1985; Rubenstein & Thompson, 2001; Schleppegrell, 2007; Spanos, Rhodes, Dale, & Crandall, 1988; Thompson, Kersaint, Richards, Hunsader, & Rubenstein, 2008; Thompson & Rubenstein, 2000). The difficulties fall into five broad categories — vocabulary, symbolic representations, syntax, semantics, and linguistic features of discourse—discussed in the following sections.
