ABSTRACT

A fundamental question in early childhood mathematics concerns the relationship between young children’s own informal signs and the formal abstract symbolic language of mathematics. This study presents research investigating the genesis of mathematical semiosis from a Vygotskian cultural-historical (social-semiotic) perspective. In this study we look at the premature stages of dealing with quantity and their relationships. Our aim is to reveal the interweaving of young children’s sign-use and to consider the role of intertextuality in mathematisation. Longitudinal, ethnographic data were gathered from case studies of seven children aged 3–4 years in an inner-city nursery school in England, documenting observations of their spontaneous pretend play. The data are interrogated through interpretive analysis and show that some graphical signs moved between individuals’ texts, also borrowed from others including the teacher, and woven together. Children’s progressive understandings of mathematical sign-use appear to be attained in part through intertextual exchanges in social and culturally meaningful contexts, such as pretend play.

摘要

幼儿数学的一个基本问题涉及幼儿自己的非正式符号与数学的正式抽象符号语言之间的关系。本研究提出了从维果茨基文化历史（社会符号学）角度调查数学符号学起源的研究。在这项研究中，我们着眼于处理数量及其关系的早期阶段。我们的目的是揭示幼儿手语使用的相互交织，并考虑互文性在数学化中的作用。纵向的人种学数据是从英格兰市中心一所幼儿园的 7 名 3-4 岁儿童的案例研究中收集的，记录了他们自发的假装游戏的观察结果。通过解释分析对数据进行询问，结果显示一些图形符号在个人的文本之间移动，这些图形符号也是从包括老师在内的其他人那里借用的，并交织在一起。儿童对数学符号使用的渐进理解似乎部分是通过在具有社会和文化意义的背景下进行互文交流（例如假装游戏）来实现的。