Sastre Vázquez, Patricia, D'Andrea, Rodolfo, Villacampa, Yolanda, Navarro-González, Francisco J.
Do first-year university students understand the language of mathematics?
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences. 2013, 93: 1658-1662. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.097
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/36061
DOI: 10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.10.097
ISSN: 1877-0428
Abstract: 
The aim of the project is to determine if the understanding of the language of Mathematics of students starting university is propitious to the development of an appropriate cognitive structure. The objective of this current work was to analyse the ability of first-year university students to translate the registers of verbal or written expressions and their representations to the registers of algebraic language. Results indicate that students do not understand the basic elements of the language of Mathematics and this causes them to make numerous errors of construction and interpretation. The students were not able to associate concepts with definitions and were unable to offer examples.
Keywords:The language of mathematics, Register, Difficulties, Symbol
Elsevier
info:eu-repo/semantics/article