The Impacts Of Academic Vocabulary On Mathematics Achievement Of Elementary Students

Among the factors that affect students' academic performance,language ability has always been regarded as a key factor,and such influence not only exits in reading and writing,but also widely in mathematics,social and science subjects.Improving students'language skills can not only contribute to their knowledge acquisition and learning processes but also their participation in school.However,recent studies have shown that students may rely more on a special language in school context,the "academic language".Academic language differs from everyday language which is more abstract,concise,and has more stricter grammar requirements and therefore demands more cognitive engagement.Academic vocabulary is a key element of academic language and lacking of academic vocabulary may also have impact on students' school performance.Although,the theoretical research on academic language has reached maturity abroad,the empirical research is still insufficient.In China,there is not only a lack of theoretical discussion on academic language,but also a lack of empirical research on academic vocabulary.Therefore,our study,focusing on mathematics,explores the relationship between students'academic vocabulary knowledge level and their mathematical performance.Specifically,we will firstly develop an academic vocabulary list based on the analysis of relevant literature at home and abroad,combining with the characteristics of the Chinese;secondly develop the corresponding academic language test on this basis;thirdly explore the impact of academic vocabulary knowledge level on students' mathematical performance.Based on a detailed analysis of mathematics textbooks and tutorials used by second graders and fourth graders in a primary school of a city in central China,we finally determined the academic vocabulary list and developed the corresponding academic vocabulary test.Using that test to test 102 second-grade students and 90 fourth-grade students in above primary school,our study concludes that:1.The types of vocabulary that affect the mathematical academic performance of higher and lower grade students are different.Academic vocabulary can positively predict the mathematical academic performance of second and fourth grade students,while general vocabulary can only positively predict the mathematical academic performance of second grade students.2.The impact of academic vocabulary on the mathematical academic performance of higher and lower grade students is different,the impact on the academic performance of fourth-grade students is greater than that of second-grade students.