The Relation Between Mathematics Vocabulary And Different Types Of Mathematics Performance Among Third Graders

In the context of the new version of mathematics curriculum standards,mathematics language has received increasing attention in mathematics education.As a tool for expressing mathematical thinking,mathematics language is crucial to the success of students’ mathematical learning and it is one of the most important factors influencing their mathematics performance.Mathematics vocabulary,as an important component of mathematics language as well as the foundation of mathematical language,has also received increasing attention from researchers in mathematics education in recent years.Based on previous research,the current study intends to develop a mathematics vocabulary test which is applicable to third grade students in Shanghai.The test is based on Chinese compulsory education mathematics curriculum standards and elementary school mathematics textbooks.We use it to measure mathematics vocabulary mastery of 249 third graders from two primary schools in Shanghai.We also measured students’ performance on different mathematical tasks(including mathematics academic performance,mathematics problem solving and mathematics numerical operations),general cognitive variables(Raven’s reasoning ability and working memory),and other vocabulary-related variables(general vocabulary and general academic vocabulary).We try to explore the relationship between mathematics vocabulary and mathematics performance on different mathematical tasks and the mechanisms of influence among them.Three research questions as follows guides our research:(1)What is third-grade students’ mastery of mathematics vocabulary?(2)What is the relationship between mathematics vocabulary and their performance in mathematics academic tests,mathematics problem solving,and mathematics numerical operations,under the control for general cognitive variables?(3)Is there a mediating role of mathematics vocabulary between general cognitive variables and mathematics academic performance,mathematics problem solving,and mathematics numerical operations?The following findings were obtained from the compilation and analysis of all test data,which indicated that:(1)Students’ overall performance on mathematics vocabulary tests was normal,with large disparities between different students.Besides,there were differences in the mastery of different categories of mathematics vocabulary.(2)There was a significant positive correlation between mathematics vocabulary and performance on all mathematical tasks.Specifically,general academic vocabulary and arithmetic,measurement,and geometric vocabulary of mathematics vocabulary were significant predictors of mathematics academical performance.General academic vocabulary as well as geometric vocabulary were significant predictors of performance in mathematics problem solving.General vocabulary as well as measurement vocabulary had significant predictive effects on mathematics arithmetic performance.(3)In the pathway between Raven’s reasoning and working memory skills affecting students’ performance on different mathematical tasks,mathematics vocabulary showed a partially mediating effect.Arithmetic vocabulary,measurement vocabulary and geometric vocabulary all had significant mediating effects between Raven’s reasoning,working memory and mathematics academical performance.Geometric vocabulary had significant mediating effects between Raven’s reasoning,working memory and mathematics problem solving.Besides,measurement vocabulary only had significant mediating effects between Raven’s reasoning and mathematics operations.Finally,based on the findings and conclusions of current study,implications for research and practice are discussed.