Communication in the teaching of mathematics : A study of the significance of communication and of the language of mathematics for students' mathematical learning

The purpose of this study has been to investigate how four 3rd grade pedagogues allow communication in the teaching of mathematics and how these pedagogues allow their students to use and expand their language of mathematics. It has also been an aim to investigate these four pedagogues’ opinions about the significance of communication and of the language of mathematics for students’ mathematical learning. The study is based on a sociocultural perspective of Vygotskij’s. The theory implies the importance of using the language and communication for students’ learning. The study contains a description of prewievs researchers’ perspective of the significance of communication and of the language of mathematics for students’ mathematical learning. The empirical data consist of qualitative methods in forms of interviews and observations. The results of this study show that all of the participating pedagogues believe that communication and the language of mathematics are important for students’ mathematical learning, but only three of them offered their students an opportunity to communicate in the teaching of mathematics. Only one of four pedagogues uses purely the language of mathematics, instead of a everyday mathematical language. Two of the four pedagogues use a combination of a language of mathematics and a everyday mathematical language, and one of these two succedeed to expand their students’ mathematical vocabulary