The Chinese Lexicon: Interconnection of Terms and Practice

• In Event: 66.054 - Unpacking the Technical Vocabulary of Middle School Mathematics Teachers Internationally

Abstract

Objective
The Chinese team addressed the question: In what way does the Chinese Lexicon represent Chinese teachers’ experience of the mathematics classroom? This presentation reports the constituent elements and structural characteristics of the Chinese lexicon. In particular, we analyse the structure of the Chinese Lexicon from the perspective of the interconnectedness of key terms.

Perspective
The Chinese research team took the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis (Sapir, 1949) as its theoretical point of reference and examined the Chinese Lexicon as representative of a fundamental structuring by Chinese middle school mathematics teachers of the world of their classroom.

Methods and Data
As with other national teams in the Lexicon Project, Chinese Lexicon team members took part in the video viewing process to identify the terms used by the teachers. In the Lexicon Project, the video stimulus material integrated three different views of the classroom (teacher, student and whole class) in an attempt to make visible all that happens in the classroom. This generated an initial list of terms.

An “expert panel” of experienced teachers and professors were invited to delete and add terms according to their teaching and researching experience. This panel revised the draft lexicon to include 124 terms. Of the 124 terms, 104 were thought to be widely used 12 were given provisional status as seldom used, while 8 were judged to be seldom used, but of sufficient pedagogic significance to be included in the Chinese Lexicon.

Analytical Approach
The Research Team looked for some inner relationship between the 124 terms, according to the following perspectives:

（1）Who is responsible for any action implied by the term?
（2）Is there a possible hierarchical relationship between the terms?
（3）Can any of the terms be arranged in a chronological sequence according to their likely occurrence in the course of a lesson? Are any of the terms coincident or overlapping in their occurrence or focus?

The Research Team sorted the 124 terms according to these 3 aspects (agency, hierarchy and sequence).

Results/Conclusions
The level of agreement between team members’ designations was quantified using an index of reliability (Ir) generating the results: Ir = 0.99 (agency), 0.79 (hierarchy), 0.9 (sequence). The degree of consistency was judged to be satisfactory and a stratified network of interconnected terms was constructed using the team members’ ratings.

In order to determine the significance of particular terms within the Chinese Lexicon, 16 terms were identified that were most frequently connected to other terms. These were (in order of connectedness and in English translation): Student Listening, Teacher Explanation, Self-Study, Student Feedback, Teacher Feedback, Show Materials, Classroom Management, Student Doing Exercise, Collaborative Study, Teacher Questioning, Student Explanation, Student Presentation, Teacher Presentation, Teacher-Student Interaction, Student Questioning, Tutoring. These results and the structure that generated them will be presented in detail.

Scholarly Significance
The Research Team sought to identify an inherent structure in the Chinese Lexicon. The results prioritise connectedness. This has significant implications for the way in which the lexicons generated by other countries might be viewed.

Authors

• Cao Yiming, Beijing Normal University

• Guowen Yu, Beijing Normal University