At that point, they were all very fluent, but because it was not their first language, there were a lot of math terms they did not know compared to their peers. When I taught in an 8th grade math class, most students did not speak English as their first language. More and more classrooms have a large or even a majority of ESL students. It is essential that students are taught and can understand the appropriate meaning of a word when in the context of a math problem.ģ. This may cause more problems for younger students than those in middle or high school, but such words as “difference,” “true,” or “product” can have different definitions or connotations in our everyday life. Often, everyday words have a different meaning in a mathematical context. Every math problem gives directions or asks a question of some sort, and a student, no matter how good they are at computation, risks getting the problem wrong if they cannot understand what the question is asking them to do.Ģ. While many people may think I am simply referring to “word problems,” I’m not. ![]() You have to understand what the question is asking if you want to get it right. Well here are the four biggest reasons that I see:ġ. Sometimes that language looks like written word and sometimes it looks like symbols, but it is a language and it must be learned for math fluency and competency. This truth became even more apparent as I made my way into the math classroom, ready to teach and excite young minds. And did a little bit of computer coding.īut what I eventually came to realize is that while math writing and vocabulary may not look the same as the beautiful, creative, eloquent prose you find in other disciplines, it is present. I had to write a few short essay type papers for some English and writing classes, but in terms of hefty, extensive writing? I just didn’t do it. Over the course of my undergraduate career, I wrote a total of two research papers. ![]() That was my thinking anyway, as I jumped into my freshman year. Math doesn’t require reading and writing. ![]() There were many reasons why I opted to major in mathematics rather than history, art history, or English (although let’s be honest…I never really considered majoring in English.). Photo Credit: woodleywonderworks via Compfight cc (Text added)
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