Abstract:

Professional Slovak mathematical terminology had been for many years codified and controlled by the terminological commission for mathematics. Unfortunately, this organ resigned from its mandate to be a controller of terminological correctness of mathematics textbooks and the role of the cultivator of the terminology has thus failed on the shoulders of the authors of mathematics textbooks and other mathematical texts. But not all the authors have been ready for this demanding task. This fact has had serious consequences and impact on the quality of teaching/learning material determined not only for the pupils of basic and secondary schools but also for university students. They missed and still miss appropriate supporting study source which would unify and systemize all the relevant and topical mathematical terms. The present era requires the students to be able to express themselves correctly and precisely also in other languages than Slovak. The use of the English language in teaching and learning mathematics involves both ordinary and mathematical English. Students frequently have problems with the words that have different meanings in mathematics in comparison to the ordinary language. The names of mathematical objects, relations, and operations make up the core of mathematical terminology. As university teachers educating future specialists in civil engineering, we took into serious consideration insufficient systematization of Slovak mathematical terms (that leads to misunderstanding of English mathematics terms, as well), and we decided to compile a terminological electronic dictionary that could become an indispensable teaching /learning aid not only for the students of technical faculties of the University of Žilina, but also for other technical universities in Slovakia. We would like it to respond to the needs of the current trend from all areas of mathematics, which are included in the study plans of BC., MA., and Ph.D. study programmes offered and accredited at technical universities. We assume the electronic terminological Slovak-English dictionary will be used not only in the teaching/learning of mathematics at basic and secondary schools and technical universities but also as a reference source for other professionals working in the sphere of engineering and mathematical science and finally for the public, too. We hope it will unify the use of the correct mathematical terminology. When creating a terminology database, we will also use a corpus manager and text analysis software Sketch engine with the search functions such as concordances, frequencies, and word sketches. We expect the corpus-based terminological material will be also used in the process of modification of existing mathematical textbooks, course books, workbooks, and other teaching texts and literary sources. Working with a corpus that contains a huge number of texts expressing a whole range of opinions, attitudes, and values of the contributors will necessarily bring various interesting and challenging ethical, national, and cultural-social dimensions.

Keywords:

Mathematical terminology, Slovak-English terminological dictionary, Sketch engine, corpus analysis, learning/teaching literary sources.