LEXICAL LOADS OF MATHEMATICA DISCOURSE FORYOUNG LEARNERS: A STEP TOWARDS VOCABULARY EVALUATION OF MULTI-SEMIOTIC DISCOURSE

Abstract

This study was an attempt to examine the vocabulary demands of the mathematic discourse (MD) written for young learners (YLs). The data for this research were two sets of books - one for the Vietnamese learners of English as a foreign language (L2) and one for the Singaporean learners of English as a first language (L1). To find out more about the lexical profiles of this genre, a total of 1,729 mathematic problems from two series of four books for primary school children, consisting of 15,545 running words, were analyzed to determine the vocabulary size necessary for comprehension and the potential to learn vocabulary incidentally through doing mathematics in English. The article concludes with a discussion of pedagogical implications of this study for material designers and teachers of MD for YLs