From speaking to learning of parallelism and perpendicularity relations

The paper studies the interaction between language and mathematical learning, with the aim of investigating whether the spontaneous language of younger pupils and class communication may improve understanding and learning. Simple artefacts, based on ‘parallelism’ and ‘perpendicularity’ of segments, were prepared and presented to two first grade classes in a primary school, by a narrative. We used different linguistic approaches: traditional mathematical nomenclature presented by the researcher in one class, spontaneous language suggested by the pupils in another class. Starting from this idea, we elaborated and realized in both classes similar didactical itineraries. The results of the experiments are analysed and compared.