ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the research of language and discursive aspects of lessons in which the mathematical content is somehow connected to a real-world situation. In mathematics education, such “real-world contexts” are used frequently to catch the students’ attention and to foster their understanding of the learning content. The question that arises is: How and to what extent such real-world contexts have an impact on language use, discursive requirements and the supposed opportunities to learn mathematics? Interactional analyses of selected passages of mathematics lessons from primary school will illustrate situational aspects of (academic) language use and discourse during different classroom situations. Here, the focus is on an introduction scene of relational terms in Grade 1, where the teacher uses a soft toy crocodile to introduce the learners to the terms ‘greater than’ and ‘less than’.
