Taking Advantage of the "Big Mo"--Momentum in Everyday English and Swedish and in Physics Teaching

Autor/inn/en	Haglund, Jesper; Jeppsson, Fredrik; Ahrenberg, Lars
Titel	Taking Advantage of the "Big Mo"--Momentum in Everyday English and Swedish and in Physics Teaching
Quelle	In: Research in Science Education, 45 (2015) 3, S.345-365 (21 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0157-244X
DOI	10.1007/s11165-014-9426-x
Schlagwörter	Science Education; Motion; Physics; Scientific Concepts; Language Usage; Swedish; English; Vocabulary; Foreign Countries; Sweden + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Naturwissenschaftliche Bildung; Bewegungsablauf; Physik; Sprachgebrauch; Schwedisch; English language; Englisch; Wortschatz; Ausland; Schweden
Abstract	Science education research suggests that our everyday intuitions of motion and interaction of physical objects fit well with how physicists use the term "momentum". Corpus linguistics provides an easily accessible approach to study language in different domains, including everyday language. Analysis of language samples from English text corpora reveals a trend of increasing metaphorical use of "momentum" in non-science domains, and through conceptual metaphor analysis, we show that the use of the word in everyday language, as opposed to for instance "force", is largely adequate from a physics point of view. In addition, "momentum" has recently been borrowed into Swedish as a metaphor in domains such as sports, politics and finance, with meanings similar to those in physics. As an implication for educational practice, we find support for the suggestion to introduce the term "momentum" to English-speaking pupils at an earlier age than what is typically done in the educational system today, thereby capitalising on their intuitions and experiences of everyday language. For Swedish-speaking pupils, and possibly also relevant to other languages, the parallel between "momentum" and the corresponding physics term in the students' mother tongue could be made explicit. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01