Reshaping the Language of Mathematics and Physics: Some Intersemiotic and Interlinguistic Issues

This chapter aims to analyze some of the transformations the highly specialized languages of mathematics and physics undergo when adapted in the production of cultural goods, namely popular television productions. On this basis, it explores new teaching methodologies which might render the languages of these disciplines more interesting and stimulating for young adult language learners. The chapter thus analyzes audiovisual materials which intersemiotically translate the language found in various specialized texts (articles, books, textbooks, etc.) and describes the use of these texts and television productions as teaching materials during two third-year courses taught at the University of Parma in Italy for students of modern languages. These courses - which were taught in 2015-2016 and 2016-1017 - provided a useful testing ground for an innovative approach to teaching and learning English for specific purposes (ESP) with the aid of popular culture. In particular, the classroom experiment focused on the

language of mathematics and physics found in Mario Livio's Is God a Mathematician? (2009) and Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time (1988) on the one hand, and in documentaries such as The Story of Maths (2008), Origins: Back to the Beginning (2004) and Stephen Hawking's Universe (1997) on the other. Moreover, the chapter examines the transformations the specialized language of science is subjected to when inserted in popular television series such as Numb3rs, The Big Bang Theory, and Supernova, in order to demonstrate the extent of the role played by specialized discourses within cultural industries. The chapter therefore suggests that this phenomenon has important repercussion on the very notion of needs analysis, and it argues that ESP syllabi should acknowledge its existence, offering customized teaching materials. [Publisher's Text]

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