MATHEMATICAL PHRASES: AN ACTION RESEARCH

_____________________

AN ACTION RESEARCH

Presented to the

Faculty of the Education Department

Abuyog Community College

Abuyog, Leyte

_____________________

In Partial Fulfillment

of the Requirements for the Degree

Bachelor of Secondary Education

_____________________

GERMAN RALPH R. MESTIOLA

May 2019
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The researcher would like to acknowledge the following people for

assisting him in creating this study.

Special thanks and gratitude to his instructor, Engr. Juancho C. Tesado,

for his provision of expertise, support and guidance. Thank you for his words of

encouragement that he can make and finish this research as this will build his

research analytical skills in the near future.

To his English Teacher, Mrs. Florence P. Recamadas, for she had given

the researcher the opportunity to examine the grammar and sentence structure

of the research to be presented. The researcher was so much grateful for she

had offer an ample time and effort for the said research.

Nevertheless, the researcher would like to express his gratitude towards

the BSED 4-Mathematics students who gave their kind cooperation by means of

giving some ideas and thoughts as well as the encouragement which help him in

completing this study.

---- Researcher

i
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Pages

Title

Acknowledgement............................................................................................ i

Table of Contents............................................................................................. ii

List of Tables.................................................................................................... iv

List of Figures................................................................................................... v

Abstract............................................................................................................ vi

CHAPTER........................................................................................................

I. Introduction........................................................................................ 1

Objective of the Study....................................................................... 1

Statement of the Problem................................................................. 2

Significance of the Study................................................................... 3

Definition of Terms ........................................................................... 4

II. Review of Related Literature.............................................................. 5

Translation Difficulties....................................................................... 5

The Language of Mathematics......................................................... 6

ii
 Effect on Reading Comprehension................................................... 7

Strategies (Verbal to Mathematical).................................................. 8

Class Proficiency Level..................................................................... 9

III. Methodology........................................................................................ 10

Swot Analysis..................................................................................... 10

Action Plan......................................................................................... 12

Error Analysis..................................................................................... 13

Lesson Intervention Plan.................................................................... 16

IV. Results and Discussion...................................................................... 18

V. Conclusion and Recommendation...................................................... 20

Appendixes

A. References.............................................................................................. 24

iii
LIST OF TABLES
Pages

Table 1. Swot Analysis..................................................................................... 10

Table 2. Class Proficiency Level (CPL)........................................................... 12

Table 3. Gap Analysis on the CPL................................................................... 12

Table 4. Summary of Keywords in Translation................................................ 19

iv
LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 Comprehension Process of Mathematical Text................................. 18

v
 ABSTRACT

Translation is defined as the act of recognizing and connecting related

quantities, functions and structures in two modes of representation. In other

words, the process involves translating from a given situation to a mathematical

model.

Students perennially demonstrate difficulty in correctly performing

mathematical translations between and among mathematical representations.

The purpose of this study is to identify the difficulties experienced in by the

Grade 7-Beryl students of Abuyog National High School in Translating Verbal

Phrases to Mathematical Phrases.

This study is intended to have interventions and action plan that will help

to improve the performance level of the Grade 7-Beryl students at Abuyog

National High School, Abuyog East District, Sto. Nino Abuyog, Leyte through the

guide of the Class Proficiency Level (CPL) of the school year 2018-2019.

Specifically, it aims to answer the following questions:

1. What are the difficulties experienced of the students on translating

verbal phrases to mathematical phrases?

2. What are the teaching strategies to consider in catering the needs of

the students?

3. What are the necessary interventions to be done based on the

respective topic?

Based on the data gathered by the researcher, the Class Proficiency Level

of Grade 7 section Beryl in Abuyog National High School was used in the study

vi
as basis with regards to the respective topic is 68% which is considered below

75% proficiency level.

The results of the study entails that reading comprehension strategies and

keywords should be given importance and ample effort to increase the

performance in Mathematics specifically in the topic of translating verbal phrases

to mathematical phrases.

Keywords: Representations, translations, difficulties, student errors

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viii
Chapter I

INTRODUCTION

Translation from words to symbols is undeniably one of the solution

processes in solving word problems that can be considered critical (Bardillion, Jr.

2004). It is important for students to translate a given mathematical text into

mathematical language using appropriate symbols and terminology but also

about developing and sharing mathematical ideas through different methods that

support deeper learning. According to (Mayer 1989, as cited by Yared, 2003),

one common problem in translating sentences into symbolic language is that

individuals end up remembering materials that are consistent only with their prior

schemas.

In addition to that, students are diverse in terms of level of intelligences.

This study focuses on the Grade 7-Beryl students of Abuyog National High

School. The total number of students of the class Beryl is 51 with 26 boys and 25

girls. As the researcher observed and assessed the students, they struggled in

the topic of “Translating Verbal Phrases to Mathematical Phrases “. For example,

a given verbal phrase which is “a number x is increased by five” to be translated

in a mathematical phrase, where most of the students experienced difficulty on

understanding on how they will translate it and what operation will be used.

Mostly answered, “x-5, x=5 and 5x”, which resulted to misconceptions. The

ix
researcher began to ponder ways that could help students develop learning that

will consistently cater their needs.

This research sought to identify the difficulties encountered by students in

translating verbal phrase into mathematical phrase. This study wants to address

the poor performance level of grade seven students in translating verbal phrase

into mathematical phrase. This study would be a great help for the readers to

further enhance their knowledge and understanding with regards to the

respective topic.

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Students should be able to read mathematical sentences, symbols, and

diagrams in order to be successful in mathematics (T. L. Adams, 2003). Doing

mathematics and understanding concepts and procedures require students to

comprehend mathematical language since mathematics is communication

process with numbers, symbols, and words, multiple representations would be

used in mathematics.

The researcher had experienced this problem- learners have difficulty with

regards to the topic of Translating Verbal Phrase to Mathematical Phrase.

The researcher will sought to impart strategies or techniques that will

somehow help educators and the learners to improve the best learning. This

study intends to address the difficulties in translating verbal phrase to

mathematical phrase to gain good performance in Mathematics particularly with

the Grade 7- Beryl students of Abuyog National High School. Specifically, it aims

to answer the following questions:

x
 1. What are the experienced difficulties of the students on translating

verbal phrases to mathematical phrases?

2. What are the teaching strategies to consider in catering the needs of

the students?

3. What are the necessary interventions to be done based on the

respective topic?

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study will provide something that will help to improve quality of

mathematics education for the students, teachers, math supervisors as well as

the curriculum developers and for the future researchers.

The outcomes of this study will somehow give ideas and perceptions to

the:

Students. They will be equipped with appropriate knowledge and

information that will boost their learning interest that somehow yields for

improvement of their performance in Mathematics. They will be open for new

learning connected with their prior knowledge that will establish good

performance.

Teachers. This study will help them to figure out their weaknesses with

regards to the effectivity of their teaching instruction towards learners in which

they would be able to change and modify strategies that will be used for a good

teaching-learning process.

Math Supervisors. They will be aware of the concerns and problems arise

at the formative environment, these will help them to create a progress plan that
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are relevant to resolve and address the problems particularly in the area of

Mathematics and help the teachers to develop their competencies.

Curriculum Developers. This study will guide them to broaden their

understanding to the core curriculum that defines the knowledge and skills

necessary for effective practice to be employed in teaching Mathematics that is

vital to improved classroom instruction to embody the necessary tools in

mathematics to guide the teachers and empower students.

Future Researchers. They can adhere ideas that will support their

research as they acquire additional knowledge that will help them to be logically

equipped with ideas, and to recognize mathematical thoughts with regards to the

respective topic of their research.

DEFINITION OF TERMS

Errors. An error means a simple lapse of care or concentration which almost

everyone makes at least occasionally. In mathematics, an error means the

deviation from a correct solution of a problem. (Young & O’Shea, 1981).

Learning Strategies. A combination of metacognitive, cognitive and

social/affective strategies that guide the students to have alternative ways to

solve specific types of learning activities and task (Chamot & O‟Malley, 1994)

Translation. Translation is defined as the act of recognizing and connecting

related quantities, functions and structures in two modes of representation

(Brewer and Nakamura, 1984). In other words, the process involves translating

from a given situation to a mathematical model.

xii
 Chapter II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Translation Difficulties

Mathematical words are unlikely to be used at home or in the child’s

everyday speech, and so they cause reading difficulties because they are rare in

the child’s experience’. It was seen that students are unfamiliar with the

vocabulary necessary for communicating about mathematics and interacting with

mathematical texts (H. Shuard & A. Rothery,1984). An error means a simple

lapse of care or concentration which almost everyone makes at least

occasionally. In mathematics, an error means the deviation from a correct

solution of a problem ((Chamot & O‟Malley, 1994).According to Kane (1967)

categorically distinguishes between mathematical and ordinary language when

he argued that Mathematical English (ME) and Ordinary English (OE) are

sufficiently dissimilar that they require different skills and knowledge on the part

of readers to achieve appropriate levels of reading comprehension. In other

xiii
words, learners should be proficient in both languages to achieve substantial

understanding when dealing with specialised language in mathematical texts.

In executing the translation process, learners simply translate English

sentences into mathematical expressions, simply moving from left to right without

awareness of syntactic and semantic relationships (Powell et al., 2009). For

example, “three less than a number” is wrongly interpreted by many students as

“3 – X", which is in fact X – 3 since mathematically the words “less than”

indicates subtracting 3 from X. Many learners have difficulties in interpreting

linguistic expressions especially those that contain relational statements for

example “twice as old”, “more than” and “2 less than” among others. These

relational statements are those that express a quantitative relation between two

variables and many students end up adopting a word order matching strategy to

translate them. (Mayer, 1985).

Misinterpretation of mathematical texts leading to incorrect translations

from verbal written mathematical language to algebraic equations is also

compounded by having insufficient knowledge pertaining to mathematical

vocabulary (i.e. referential terms) as used in ME (MacGregor & Price, 1999 et

al.).

The Language of Mathematics

Students should be able to read mathematical sentences, symbols, and

diagrams in order to be successful in mathematics. Printed materials involving

sentences and words which are integrated with mathematical symbols, diagrams,

and terminology are the main sources in mathematics (Adams,2003). Since

xiv
mathematics is a communication process with numbers, symbols, and words,

multiple representations would be used in mathematics. In addition to symbols

and words, diagrams are also used for getting the mathematical massages.

According to the standards of (Ministry of National Education,2005)

instead of conditioning the students to these words, they should be given real-

world examples from their daily life involving addition, subtraction, multiplication,

and division operations so that they have opportunities to obtain sufficient

experiences. Most of the difficulties students face in mathematics are related to

language. One of the main reasons for language-related difficulties in

mathematics is insufficient comprehension of the difference between

mathematical language and daily language. Students should be careful about

understanding the difference between the mathematical use of words and

general use of words in order to comprehend mathematical texts. Students

should have learning strategies which are combination of metacognitive,

cognitive and social/affective strategies that guide the students to have

alternative ways to solve specific types of learning activities and task (Chamot &

O‟Malley, 1994)

The Effect of Reading Comprehension on doing Mathematics

Comprehension ‘is seen as a process of sense-making in light of or

through assimilation and accommodation of cognitive structures’.(Harste et al.,

1984).Mathematical reading involves both linguistic comprehension skills and

knowledge of the ‘language of mathematics,’ which consists of words, numbers,

and symbols (Adams, 2003).

xv
 Students doing mathematics ultimately results in students reading

mathematics. This reading of mathematics is manifested in students reading

words, symbols (including numerals), and visuals such as diagrams and graphs’

(Adams and Lowery, 2007) .Activating what is read means that doing

mathematics is an important component in mathematics.

Teaching words well means, ‘giving students multiple opportunities to

build vocabulary knowledge, to learn how words are conceptually related to one

another, and to learn how they are defined contextually in the material that

students are studying’ (Vacca and Vacca, 2002). Although some students have

sufficient knowledge about words, symbols, and problems in mathematical texts,

they may not have necessary comprehension strategies such as using prior

knowledge for reading mathematics . Activating prior knowledge is necessary for

comprehending, interacting with, and constructing meaning for any given text

(Anderson and Pearson, 1984).

Strategies in Translation (Verbal to Mathematical)

Students are expected to both read for meaning through decoding and

comprehension and solve for meaning using numerical understanding in

mathematics (W. McKenzie,1990). Students who have strong comprehension

strategies have also potential in better problem solving skills). (T.A. Carter and

E.O. Dean,2006). Similarly, (Anderson and Pearson,1996) stated that the use of

prior knowledge is necessary for constructing meaning and interacting with texts.

“Therefore, mathematics teachers have an important role in developing

xvi
students’ comprehension skills when reading mathematical texts. Moreover,

teachers should lay emphasis on the meanings of all the words and symbols

used in mathematics lesson and distinguish the difference between the

mathematical use of words and general use of words. Since the ability of relating

new concepts and words is very important, the teachers should teach the

meanings of all the words used in classrooms to students well. Students should

be involved in reading comprehension activities by asking them to read a

mathematical text aloud, supporting it with comprehending mathematical text

when required, and asking questions which help students to activate prior

knowledge and skills” (Adem Duru & Onder Koklu ,2011).

Class Proficiency Level

One way to determine if students have difficulty on a particular topic is

through computing the Class Proficiency Level (CPL). The Department of

Education adapted an assessment tool to help teachers assess students’

performance through computing the Class Proficiency Level. With the

implementation of new grade system, DepEd will stop using the traditional

practice in public schools of passing students to the next level even if students

failed to earn a passing proficiency level (Ronda, 2012). The formula of

number of students passed

computing proficiency level: CPL = x 100 , with these it
number of takers

will help teacher to assess the performance of the students and to give

remediation to those students who did not pass the quiz. (Note that the passing

rate is 75%).

xvii
 Chapter III
METHODOLOGY
Table 1. Swot Analysis
STRENGTHS
 Competent about the basic
building block of algebra -- the
variable, in different situations
 Sufficient with understanding of
the key words in translating
verbal phrases by knowing what
the English words mean
mathematically
 Equipped with good reading
comprehension and decoding of
English text to mathematical
language
OPPORTUNITIES
WEAKNESSES
 Perplexity of the representation
of the constants which is
denoted by a variable ( Ex: “a
number x” )
 Deficient understanding of
mathematical expressions or
poor skills along mathematical
translations.
 Poor linguistic comprehension
skills and knowledge of the
‘language of mathematics,’
which consists of words,
numbers, and symbols
THREATS
xviii
  Direct link of knowledge of  Unable to relate mathematical
translating mathematical terms words to a specific operation
or vocabulary to problem solving  Poor mastery of arithmetic
 Deeper learning of the basic concepts and insufficient
arithmetic concepts using comprehension mathematical
appropriate symbols and language
terminology
 Activating prior knowledge that  Errors and misconceptions of
is necessary for comprehending, the mathematical words used in
interacting with, and translation of phrases
constructing meaning for any
given text

The Swot Analysis presents a summary of the identified internal and

external factors that can have an impact of the learning of the students. It stated

the acquired strengths of the students corresponding to it are the weaknesses

that arise. With the topic, opportunities were somehow given point and threats

were entailed. This somehow helps on knowing the probable causes of

difficulties and serves as a tool to find possible solutions

Action Plan

Tools for Gap Analysis

A. Identification of Problem

The researcher experienced learning problem towards the Teaching-

Learning Process that needs to be given time and attention in which the Class

Proficiency Level (CPL) of the students was used to address the problem.

Gap Analysis

xix
A. 1 The main topic of the arise problem is on Translating Verbal Phrases to

Mathematical Phrases written on the K to 12 Curriculum Guide for the subject

area- Mathematics

A. 2 Baseline Data.

The Class Proficiency Level (CPL) result of the quiz of the Grade 7-Beryl

Students of Abuyog National High School used as the baseline data of the study.

Table 2. Class Proficiency Level

Grade and Section CPL

7-Beryl 68%

The table shows the percentage of the Class Proficiency Level(CPL) of

the 7-Beryl students on the respective topic. The CPL is 68% which is below

satisfactory.

Table 3. Gap Analysis on the Class Performance Level

What should be? What is actual? What is the Gap?

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 All 51 students of Grade-7 With 51 students, only There were 15

Beryl should have 75% 47 were present. Out of students with below

class performance level on 47 students, 32 passed 75% proficiency

the topic Translating Verbal the quiz; 15 boys and level on the

Phrase to Mathematical 17 girls. respective topic.

Phrase.

The researcher found out that there are students who experienced

difficulties in Translating Verbal Phrase to Mathematical Phrase based on the

given data which is the Class Performance Level (CPL) that needs further

instruction and attention. There were 32 students who passed the quiz with

above CPL; 15 boys and 17 girls. Out of 47 takers of the quiz, 15 students failed

with below CPL. This result served as the guide of the researcher to examine the

difficulties of the students on the respective topic to be able to improve their

learning potentials and to achieve a good learning correlated for a good Class

Performance Level.

Error Analysis

Interpretation Error

Learners' fail to read, interpret, and correctly integrate pieces of linguistic

components in the problem statements. Students are confused with the concept

“constants can be denoted by variables”, for example “a number x is subtracted

xxi
by 4 is equal to 3”, they are confused why is it that the letter x is a number, so

most of them directly subtracted 4 by 3 rather than (x-4=3).

Comprehension Error

Failure by learners to activate their prior knowledge on the meaning of

mathematical words used. Learners' have insufficient grasp of vocabulary

terminology. If someone does not realize that ‘sum’ means to add and ‘product’

means to multiply, then any word problem that includes these terms may cause

difficulties. An example for this, “The product of a number x and 7 is 35”, there

are cases that students do not know what does the word product means and

other words related to fundamental operations. Others solved it as “35x7”,

“x+7+35” rather than (7)(x)=35.

Ignoring Variables

Many students actually hold erroneous concepts about variables.

Kuchemann (1978) found that some students consistently ignored variables. He

gave an example “add 4 to n+5”. 68% answered correctly “n+9” 20% gave the

incorrect answer 9, suggesting they simply ignored the variable n altogether.

Variable as Labels

Another example of the misconception of a variable as a label for an

object/entity is seen when students, who are given the question “In the

expression t + 4, what does it represent?” answer with “time” instead of “any

number.

xxii
Reading Error

Failure by learners to undertake metacognitive processes when reading

mathematical texts . With the “Deniz has 4 times as many marbles as Kaya. They

have 40 marbles in total. The most popular incorrect answer was 4x=40 rather

than 4x+x=40. Students translated the phrase ‘4 times’ into 4x and they thought

that the algebraic expression should be 4x=40 when they saw the phrase ‘40

marbles in total’. Students made either careless translation or they do not have a

conceptual understanding as they read the text.

Reversal Error

This misconception of construing a variable in the classic error to the

“Students and Professors” problem, which reads as follows: “Write an equation,

using the variables S and P to represent the following statement. ‘At this

university there are six times as many students as professors.’ Use S for the

number of students and P for the number of professors.” An erroneous

understanding that S is a label for an object (students), as opposed to a variable

(number of students), led to incorrectly answer the question as 6S = P (Rosnick,

1981).When asked to explain this answer, students stated that they believed the

answer was 6S = P because S was a label for students. (The correct answer is S

= 6P where S stands for number of students.)

Word Matching Errors

xxiii
 When translating phrases into algebraic expressions, you need to identify

keywords and phrases which specifically refer to a mathematical operation

(addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division). Students commit mistakes on

understanding the related words to the specific operations entailed. The word

“times”, it can denotes multiplication operation and tells repetition of a number as

well as the words “increased and decreased”. As they translate phrases, for

example “Three times a number x is increased by 5”, they directly decode to their

minds the numbers 3 and 5 and go with multiplication process as they read the

word “times” by not using word matching to the corresponding operation to be

used.

Lesson Intervention Plan

Development

The teacher will show the class a chart of the symbols and words for

addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. As a class, the teacher will ask

the students for different phrases for the words on the chart. The teacher will

inform the students that there are multiple ways to translate mathematics

symbols into verbal expressions, and knowing the key words/phrases from the

chart will help them to translate. During the class discussion, the students will

complete the chart and use the chart to help them throughout the lesson and

on the homework assignment.

After they completed the chart, the teacher will do practice problems

with the class. The teacher will check for correctness and understanding. He

will provide students verbal expressions and algebraic expressions and the

xxiv
students will have to translate respectively. After correct answers are found,

the teacher will have all of the students check their answers and discuss any

questions that might arise. Continue giving expressions to the class until the

teacher feels they have an understanding of translations.

Guided Practice

The teacher will give each student a copy of the class worksheet. As

a class, work through one example from each section of the worksheet. The

students will then complete the worksheet in their groups. The teacher will walk

around and monitor the students’ work. After the students have complete the

worksheet, check their work and have them correct any mistakes.

Independent Practice

The student will have to complete a worksheet on translating algebraic

expressions and mathematical symbols.

Developmental Activities

The students will play an “I have who has” game using index cards.

Written on one side of an index card will be a verbal expression and on another

index card will be the symbolic translation. The students will have to match

their expression and then read a new expression and match that expression

and so on and so forth. If time permits, the students may begin their homework

assignment.

Evaluation

In addition to monitoring student progress during the guided practice

xxv
 and reviewing homework, students will be assessed by taking a chapter quiz.

The chapter quiz will require students to show their understanding of

translating verbal expressions into symbolic ones.

Chapter IV

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The researcher presented a figure that make up the comprehension

process of mathematical text, tables for the summary of error subcategories and

their possible sources and summary of keywords in translation respectively.

The presentation somehow entails the ideas of translating verbal phrases

to mathematical phrases to further know the arise difficulties of the learners..

xxvi
Figure 1. Comprehension process of mathematical text

Since mathematics is a communication process with numbers, symbols,

and words, multiple representations would be used in mathematics. In addition to

symbols and words, diagrams are also used for getting the mathematical

massages. For example, as eight plus three is equal to eleven can be shown in a

symbolic way such as 8+3= 11, this addition can also be presented with a

diagram showing the addition of an 8-item group to a 3-item group. Therefore, a

mathematical massage can be presented to students even without using words

and symbols.

Table 4. Summary of Keywords for Translation

ADDITION SUBTRACTION MULTIPLICATION DIVISION

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 sum minus Product Ratio
plus reduce times quotient
total difference twice average
and left doubled over
together change tripled into
additional less per half of
added to fewer squared a third of
combined with decreased by cubed of split evenly
more than less than multiplied by shared
increased by takeaway equally
subtract from divided by

This table shows summary of common keywords used in translation of

phrases. Students should learn these words to further understand the related

concepts or examples involving addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division

operations so that they have opportunities to obtain sufficient experiences.

Chapter V

CONCLUSION

In this study, the researcher studied the Grade 7- Beryl students’ with the

help of the Class Proficiency Level (CPL) with regards to the abilities to translate

verbal phrases into mathematical phrases.

According to the findings of the study, it was shown that students had

difficulties in translating the mathematical texts into mathematical expressions

xxviii
using symbols. It was also observed that these students had much more

difficulties in translating the symbolic representations into mathematical texts

because of their weak reading comprehension.

First, the students have weak or no reading comprehension in order to

comprehend the given mathematical text and algebraic representation. The

researcher investigated the sources of students’ errors while students were

translating the mathematical texts into mathematical expressions and found that

one of the sources of these errors was the students’ failure to base the

expression on the sentence meaning. Similarly, students’ difficulties in word

problems stem more from their lack of comprehension skills than from their lack

of computational skills.

Second, students’ difficulties in translating between mathematical texts

and algebraic representations stem from their lack of knowledge about the

meaning of symbols, signs, and words used in mathematical texts and algebraic

representations. Mathematical symbols used in both representation of

mathematical concepts such as numbers, equations, sets and functions, and

mathematical procedures such as addition, multiplication, and solution of

equations are crucial elements for doing mathematics. Therefore, students

should know the mathematical symbols and their meanings, since symbols guide

students about what they should do mathematically.

Finally, students’ difficulties in translating between mathematical texts and

algebraic representations come from lack of their ability to use and organize prior

knowledge. It was observed that some students were not able to compose parts

xxix
of the texts although they knew the meaning of words and symbols used in these

texts. . Similarly, the use of prior knowledge is necessary for constructing

meaning and interacting with texts.

In conclusion, it was shown that students had difficulties in

comprehending the mathematical texts and translating them into algebraic

equations using symbols. Reading comprehension in mathematics requires that

a student understands the meaning of the words and symbols used in

mathematical problems. Otherwise, solving mathematical word problems is often

hindered by the student’s failure to comprehend the problem. Therefore,

mathematics teachers have an important role in developing students’

comprehension skills when reading mathematical texts.

RECOMMENDATIONS

One important observation noted from this study was the learners' inability

to come to terms with language of Mathematics, which consists of technical

terms, unfamiliar uses of syntax and semantics that need careful reading and

comprehension skills.

As the findings from the study has revealed, the application of

mathematical knowledge and skills is substantially hampered or even

constrained by whether learners can effectively undertake requisite linguistic

processes such as monitoring their understanding as they read mathematical

xxx
texts. Therefore, to harness linguistic challenges that contribute to errors that

learners commit when translating from word to algebraic representations, the

following pedagogical practices are suggested;

Firstly, teachers should bring awareness to learners that mathematical

language has its own register and that some everyday words used in this register

have specific meanings in mathematics. Mathematics teachers should place

more emphasis on the use of mathematical terms such as 'more than', 'less

than', 'equal to', 'sum or difference', and ' greater than' in order to improve

student's deficiencies on how these words are interpreted in the process of

forming equations.

Secondly, vocabulary tests may be administered regularly as part of

assessments during the course of the learning period as this may help learners

to conceptualise mathematical ideas, which are explained using specialised

mathematical language.

Thirdly, Mathematics educators should engage learners during

discussions on word problem solving wherein they model a wide array of

strategies important for learners to make sense of the text at hand. Such

strategies among others may include teaching learners to be aware of how

grammatical structures and word order in mathematical texts provide important

clues that lead to correct formulation of equations and giving adequate

corrections to students in form of feedback.

xxxi
 Some strategies that students can use when working with the concept of

Translating Verbal Phrase to Mathematical Phrase:

 Read the expression or sentence more than once

 Use colored markers, pencils or highlighters to identify each term

 Underline, circle, or box each of the terms as you identify them

Finally, English and Mathematics teachers should work together to help

students understand words that are found in both OE and ME by way of making

references to their specific meanings in both discourses. In addition,

Mathematics teachers should set up teaching environments in which

conventional mathematical language migrates from the teacher to the students.

In such cases, it is likely that meanings that students construct may ultimately

descend from those captured through the kind of language the teacher uses.

APPENDIX A

REFERENCES

Adem Duru & Onder Koklu (2011) Middle school students’reading

comprehension of mathematical texts and algebraic equations,
InternationalJournal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology,
42:4, 447-468, DOI:10.1080/0020739X.2010.550938,Retrieved from
https://www.research

xxxii
 gate.net/publication/233308039_Middle_school_students’_reading_compr
ehension_of_mathematical_texts_and_algebraic_equations

Bardillion, R. U. (2004). Students' filipino verbal and symbolic translations,

problem solving ability and attitude towards mathematics word
problems. Quezon: Unpublished Master Thesis, University of the
Philippines Retrieved from https://www.dlsu.edu.ph

H. Shuard and A. Rothery (eds.), Children Reading Mathematics. John

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