Open AccessMother tongue policies and mathematical terminology in the teaching of mathematics
Author(s) -
Mercy Kazima
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
pythagoras
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.374
H-Index - 7
eISSN - 2223-7895
pISSN - 1012-2346
DOI - 10.4102/pythagoras.v0i67.74
Subject(s) - terminology , exploratory research , mathematics education , action research , set (abstract data type) , process (computing) , action (physics) , pedagogy , computer science , sociology , linguistics , mathematics , social science , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , programming language , operating system
The Department of Education in South Africa advocates collaborative and constructivist learning; however, observations indicate that little discussion occurs in most multilingual mathematics classes. In this paper we draw on a pilot study set in the Eastern Cape where teachers were introduced to the theory and practice of exploratory talk, and then tasked to perform an action research project on introducing discussion in their own multilingual mathematics classrooms. The results of the study suggest some successes in terms of teachers initiating exploratory talk and highlight the fact that these successes were only achieved where code switching between English and isiXhosa formed an integral part of the process