Language-related misconceptions in the study of limits

Abstract

This paper reports on the language-related misconceptions of a group of post-secondary students when working on problems involving the limit of a real-valued function at a single point. In this qualitative study, 50 post-secondary students took a test and participated in a survey, from which 10 were interviewed after the test. The data revealed several misconceptions held by the post-secondary students about the limit concept that were related to the issue of language. Such language-related misconceptions resulted from incorrect internal representations and the inability to reify the limit.