TASK SPECIFICITY IN THE USE OF WORDS IN MATHEMATICS - EVIDENCE FROM BILINGUAL PROBLEM SOLVERS

Mathematics is often said to be a different language in itself. Three experiments were conducted to show some evidence for this common notio n. It was hypothesized that in math word problem solving, people inter pret words like ''more'' and ''less'' in specialized ways that are spe cific to the task of math word problem solving. Subjects were given te xts with quantitative information, but the texts were framed either as math problems or as stories, and were written either in English or Fi lipino. Subjects were then asked to verify statements that describe qu antitative relations given in the text; these relations either stated an exact or an inexact quantitative difference. The verification respo nses and verification times in three experiments show that subjects mo re often accepted the inexact difference as true when the text was fra med as a story compared to when framed as a problem. These results sup port the hypothesis that the use of the specialized meaning is specifi c to the task of solving word problems in math. The data were equivoca l about the role of the language used in the operation of this knowled ge. The results were discussed in terms of the implications of specifi city of knowledge, context sensitivity, and the possible role of langu age use in the process of learning and developing mathematical knowled ge.