A Study on the Linguistic Aspect of the Understanding of Geometric Figures - Focused on the Origin and the Coining of Geometric Terms -

도형 개념의 이해에 영향을 미치는 언어적 측면에 대한 연구 - 용어의 어원과 조어 방식을 중심으로 -

This paper deals with the possible problems which may arise when students learn the names of elementary geometric figures in the languages of Korean, Chinese, English. The names of some simple geometric figures in these languages are analyzed, and a specially designed test was administered to some grade eight students from the three language groups to explore the possible influence of the characteristics of the languages on students' capability in identifying the figures, the way students define the figures, and students' understanding of the inclusive relationship among figures. It was found that the usage of the terms to describe geometric figures may indeed have affected students' understanding of the figures. The names of geometric figures borrowed from those of everyday life objects may cause students to fix on some attributes of the objects which may not be consistent with the definition of the figures. Even when the names of the geometric figures depict the features of the figures, the words used in the naming of the figures may still affect students' understanding of the inclusive relations. If there is discrepancy between the definition of a geometric figure and the features that the name depicts, it may affect students' understanding of the definition of the figure, and if there is inconsistency in the classification of figures, it may affect students' understanding of the inclusive relationship involving those figures. Some implications of the study are then discussed.