Week 1 Reading Idea

Halliday on the mathematics register

The author mentions hesitating on page 200 and states that hesitation can be a part of the unique language aspect of the system. I found this interesting because the timing and placement of pauses in speech play an important role in communication, especially when people from different cultural backgrounds with different mother languages are involved.

A research article focusing on ESL students in Vancouver (I can't remember details) found that a certain group of students struggled to make friends with Canadian students not because their English was weak, but because their hesitation or pause time when expressing ideas was longer than that of Canadian students. In daily conversation, this pause time is often a signal for Canadian students to jump in and start talking, which can be seen as an interruption. Thus, hesitation is more important than we think. Different lengths of hesitation in a conversation can signal different things, like thinking, waiting, or the end of a dialogue.

Another interesting line I found is on page 203, where the author states that“we should seek equally positive ways of advancing those aspects of the learning process which are, essentially, linguistic.” This idea is new to me; I had never considered that the mathematics learning process could be a linguistic learning process. Reflecting on my mathematics learning in Chinese and comparing it with learning mathematics in English, I think the register of mathematics in Mandarin has contributed to the ease with which Chinese learners grasp mathematical concepts.

For example, the counting system in Mandarin is very simple: 12 is just "ten and two," 22 is "two ten and two," and there are no special words like eleven or twelve. This simplicity makes it easy for young children to count to large numbers once they learn the basic rules. Moreover, in Mandarin, geometric shapes are named descriptively: a square is a "four-side shape," and a pentagon is a "five-side shape." This is much easier than remembering the terminology in English, where shapes are named with prefixes like penta-, hexa-, and hepta-, which are totally different from the daily counting system.

Therefore, the mathematics learning process can indeed be a linguistic learning process, especially for beginners. The unique development of the mathematical register in different languages can contribute in various ways, shaping how people perceive and learn mathematics.

PS: Chemistry works in the same way in Mandarin. Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) is known as Two Oxygen changed Carbon. Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) is known as hydrogen-oxygen changed Sodium. I guess you know most of the Chemical names in Mandarin now with these two examples.