Problem Solving Concretely with the Word like

Abstract

While the average teenager’s conversation may seem inundated with the word like, in the mathematics classroom, teenagers use it with purpose. Linguists study the word like to understand and categorize comparative statements. By overlapping linguistics and mathematics education within the frame of cognitive science, this study found that high school students do not use the word like arbitrarily. Its use within conceptual-metaphor analysis (Lakoff, & Johnson, 2003; 1980) suggests a specific purpose within mathematical problem solving. This interdisciplinary study identifies distinctions in high school students’ use of the word like. Specifically, students predominantly used the word like in a concrete manner to aid in conceptualization. This article offers practical indicators for teachers to improve students’ ability to solve mathematics problems.