Språkutveckling i matematiken

Sammanfattning: This paper is an overview of current research on teaching mathematics. The question to answer through studying research on the matter is how are language development strategies used in mathematical learning? The subsequent questions that we posed were why is it important with language development to learn math, how do students learn the language in mathematics, how does the use of language affect the possibility to learn mathematic and finally how are multilingual students’ possibilities to learn mathematics affected? The method used is reading and discussing  various sources of research in the field, using a few key words and refining the search as sources are used to find new keywords.  Through the research we have been able to answer the posed questions. Our main question is impossible to answer in one sentence, but what can be said is that there are language development strategies that play a role in mathematics learning and that they may vary from school to school, or even teacher to teacher. It is clear, however, that language development and using the language in education is crucial for learning new concepts and to communicate ideas, solutions and understanding in mathematics. In order for this development to take place it is necessary to actively use and practise using the language during mathematics learning. The teacher plays an important role to communicate this precise language and to encourage its students to practise to use it in order to communicate effectively.