This article emerges from the first author’s broader PhD study that investigates the nature of
the linguistic complexity of the Grade 4 Department of Education (DoE) Annual National
Assessments (ANA) test items and how learners (with a poor command of the language of
learning and teaching) and teachers experience them. This paper reports on the findings of a
content analysis done on the 2013 mathematics ANA test items using Shaftel, Belton-Kocher,
Glasnapp and Poggio (2006)’s linguistic complexity checklist and formula. Results point to
some serious linguistic challenges of test items particularly in relation to: recurrent use of 7
or more letter words, homophones, prepositional phrases and specific mathematics
vocabulary across the majority of questions. The study recommends a consideration of the
linguistic complexity of test items, accompanied by trialling of the items with learners, by test
designers prior to their use in national assessments. We argue that this consideration is
especially important at the Grade 4 level where the majority of South African learners will
only have had a few months of mathematics instruction in English before they write these
assessments in English.