• Journal of Elementary Mathematics Education in Korea
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.207-223
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• 2013

Teachers unfold a series of timeless mathematical symbols such as 5+2=7 in time by verbalizing the symbols in classrooms. A number sentence 5+2=7 is read in Korean as '5 더하기 2는(five plus two) 7과(seven) 같다(equals). Unlike in English, 5+2 and 7 are read first before the equal sign in Korean. This sequence of reading in Korean conflicts with the conventional linguistic sequence of writing from left to right. Ways of resolving the discrepancy between reading and writing sequences can make a difference students' understanding of the equal sign. Students would be in danger of perceiving the equal sign as an operational symbol, if a teacher resolves the discrepancy by subordinating reading sequence to linguistic convention of writing. This way of resolving results in the undesired phenomenon of changing the reading expressions in Korean elementary math textbook which represent relational notion of the equal sign into other reading expressions that represent operational notion of it. For understanding of relational notion of the equal sign, the discrepancy should be resolved by changing writing sequence in accordance with reading sequence. In addition, teaching of verbalizing the equal sign should be integrated with teaching of verbalizing inequality signs.

• Journal of Educational Research in Mathematics
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.287-307
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• 2003

This study analyzed the concept of equal symbol(=) that is the most symbol used in learning of mathematics and investigated students' understanding of that. The equal symbol is endowed with the 'same', 'equal', and 'equivalent' meaning, represented by =, but students interpret the meaning of equal symbol according to the mathematical con text. Thus, we analyzed the equal symbol on the basis of the theory of conceptual fields. In the theory of conceptual fields, concept is a three-tuple of three sets of situation, operational invariants and symbolic representations, and the operational invariants are the concept-in-action and the theorems- in-action. With the analysis contents, we investigated how students read = by korean, what equals in the expression containing = or by what meaning students used =, and which they could correct the error for =. This study imply that we should consider the symbol notation agreed by mathematical society, the meaning, and the situational context that it used, when we teach the mathematics symbols.