The linguistic complexity of the tasks of the standardized final exams in mathematics are often criticized by the media or by frustrated pupils or teachers. This diploma thesis attends to these accusations and deals with the topic of language in mathematics. It discusses the characteristics of mathematical language in school, its diffculties and possible challenges for the students and especially focusses on text understanding with regard to text-based tasks. Depending on the theory of this

more »

... t part of the thesis, a method is developed in order to evaluate the level of difficulty of the four text-based tasks of the final exams of May 2015 ("Typ-2-Aufgaben"). This method will be used to locate and analyse the linguistic problems within the mathematics exam. Furthermore it will be discussed whether the issue of language in mathematics should be included into the mathematic lessons more frequently than is done at the moment.