Connecting Research to Teaching: Teaching the Language of Mathematics

Abstract

The belief that mathematics is a language is not new. One often hears this sentiment in conversations among mathematicians, and many students resonate to the idea of mathematics as a “foreign” language. A consensus on this issue does not exist in the mathematics community, however. Hersh (1997) asserts that mathematics is just a jargon, a semi-dialect—he calls it “math lingo.” He points out that if mathematics is a language, then people must be able to make such statements as “I am cold" in that language. Magnus (1997) also disputes the claim that mathematics is a language, preferring to describe it as making use of a special language and having some functions of a language but not being a language in its own right. Bullock (1994, 736) disagrees, claiming that indeed mathematics is a language.