Salma Jan

Role of Language in Teaching & Learning of Mathematical Word Problems: in English Language Learning (Ell)context Salma Jan

My interest to understand role of language in teaching and learning mathematical word problems evoked from my teaching and learning experiences. When I look back at my own learning experiences of mathematics at the secondary level, I remember that on a majority of occasions I felt handicapped in understanding the language of the text,especially in mathematics. This is because the language of teaching and learning mathematics is underestimated by teachers. Likewise, during my teaching I realized the need to find out about the role of language in teaching and learning word problems. As I observed students facing difficulties in understanding word problems presented in English. As a result, I wondered as to what extent language played a crucial role in understanding mathematical word problems. Was the role of language in mathematics being ignored? why did one need to understand the language of teaching and learning mathematics? These questions kept bothering me especially when I came across word problems because I believed that language and mathematical word problems were strongly related. Consequently,this book examines the connection between language and mathematical word problems.