CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Learning of mathematics developsgood knowledgeand understanding because of its application to all fields of human endeavor. It is a field of study that brings about logical thinking and reasoning toward a solution to problem that is to be solved. Gouba (2008) viewed mathematicsas a peculiar subject that is recognized in the entire world. It is, therefore, integrated in education so as to prepare students with the basic requirement necessary for proceeding to higher education, career aspirations and for personnel living. It remainsas the base for all sciences and technologies in the world (Uchechi, 2013).

Gambari, et al., ( 2013) viewed mathematics as the subject that takes a significant position in developing the individual knowledge and plays a significant role in enhancing the country‘s socio-economic development. It is a means of social functions in our day-to-day activities. The social functions include: buying, selling,and banking, among others.Association for Computational Mechanics in Engineering (ACME, 2011) agreed that mathematics makes an essential contribution to a good rounded education, playing a vital role in the area industry and technology. Without a sound understanding of mathematics appreciation of a range of other educational disciplines such as music, the sciences, geography and economics is compromised (Vorderman et al., 2011). Welberry(2009) viewed that mathematics defines a situation and gives the reason for the existence of the problem situation. In essence therefore it develops knowledge and understanding which can be applied to solve relevant problems or situations.

The study of mathematicsleads to good andlogical thinking,accuracy and creativity.Mathematics is an essential tool in the exploration of or world and viewed as the science of understanding patterns that exist around us and solving problems in our daily life (Agwu, 2015). Mathematics deals with nature and refers to that aspectof numbers which may be found in sand dunes and the aspect of movement which may include how an individual person walks, talks and reasons and this explainswhy mathematics helps us to understand and control our nature (NCCA, 2014).NCTM (2006) recommendedthat students at lower level of education need to learn mathematics to excel at higher levels of generalization of models and solve complex problems. This would provide the opportunity for many countries of the world to remain competitive in terms of economy that is neededfor scientific and technological development.

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM, 2012) maintained that every student should have equitable and optimal opportunities to learn mathematics free from bias – intentional or unintentional- based on race, gender, socioeconomic status, or language. To close the achievement gap, all students need the opportunity to learn challenging mathematics from a well-qualified teacher who will make connections to the background, needs, and cultures of all learners (NCTM, 2012). We must communicate to learn languages and mathematics. Focus on mathematical representations, mathematics language syntax, grammar, and semantics are flexible in English language.

Percy & Andrew (2014) opines that translation from words to symbols is undeniably one of the solution processes in solving word problems, examples of such words or phrases which are English groups and can be translated into mathematical symbols, may include sum (+), difference (-), take away (-), of (x) product (x), ago (-) division (÷), less than (<), greater than (>) etc. Symbols in brackets after each word stated are refers to as mathematical symbols or notation. The challenge on learners would then be to relearn these familiar words and assimilate them into correct mathematical contexts. This challenge therefore can only be addressed when leaners have the required proficiency of both the text language and the language of instruction.

Further research indicated that for learners to be successful in mathematics, it requires teachers to have a deep knowledge of both the language of instruction

and the subject matter which they are expected to teach (Ball, Thames & Phelps 2008) .A clear view of how student is learning mathematics develops and progresses across levels (Daro, Mosher & Corcoran 2011). It also requires teachers to be skilled at teaching in ways that are effective in developing mathematics learning for all students. Mathematics learning should focus on developing understanding of concepts and procedures through problem solving, reasoning, and discourse (NCTM, 2012). Students‘ understanding is deepened when both the language of instruction and the method used by teachers provide the discussion of similarities among representations that revealed underlying mathematical structures or essential features of mathematical ideas (Zimba 2011).

Kenya, one of the Africancountriesis set to achieve Vision 2030, whoseaim is making Kenya a newly industrialized middle income country, thus student population must excel in sciences, and the vehicle for this is mathematics ( Githua&Njoroge, 2013).

Mbuaga etal., (2012) in their study onfactors contributing to students‘ poor performance in Mathematics at Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education revealed that factors may include teachers strategies, students economic background, proficiency of the language of instruction by students. Benson and O‘Oconnor (2015) found that students poor performance at the national examination (KSCE) would be as a result of their in ability to comprehend mathematics vocabulary and the language of instruction. For students to excel, they must recognize, comprehend and apply the requisite mathematical vocabulary.

In Singapore, the necessity to study mathematics has led to the revisions of its mathematicscurriculum in order to meet the requirement that align with international reform movements (SMoE, 2007, p.14). The curriculum framework is aimed at equipping learners to become effective and good   problem solvers, it is based on five important aspect of human learning, these include; the inculcation of skills, knowledge, behaviors , metacognition and mental process(Eric, 2009).TheGood reason for the introduction of new mathematics

curriculum is seen as an important step for which learners will develop problem-

solving abilities and see problem-solving more relevant and effective. It will also enable leaners to have the required ability for advanced mathematics.

In South Africa, despite wide spread acceptance of the notion that improving performance of students in mathematics may have a high economic and sound payoff, analyse in all countries have surprisingly little information on which to base educational strategies. Student‘s low performances at lower level exams in mathematics and English language in the country have become a matter of concern when compared to other African countries that participated in the exams (Van den & Damme, 2001). Some challenges in South Africa is the quality of education, that is to say, that many teachers in the country are not teaching their subject as required and there are large number of teachers who are teaching mathematics that are not qualified and that bring about students poor performance in the subject.

Sarah (2003) in her study on language and other background factors affecting secondary pupils‘ performance in Mathematics in South Africa considers language background as a factor that affects students‘ performance in mathematics in South African secondary schools. 8000 South African students in 200 different schools were tested in mathematics and science as well as English which was a national option.. The results of the test were substantially low including other developing countries like Morocco, Chile, Indonesia and Philippines. The study confirms that proficiency in English language does

correlate with their achievement in mathematics; students with high scores in

mathematics also performed well in the English test administered while those with low scores didn‘t perform.

In Malaysia, students‘ performances at secondary level of education remain very low. Mathematics achievement test in TIMSS in 2003 clearly indicates how well students in Singapore have done. Over 50 percent of them achieved more than the average score of 603 compared to Malaysian students with only 10 % (Mullis etal., 2004). The poor performance of the students becomes a major concern among Malaysian educational stakeholders. This brings about the need for language policy for teaching mathematics and science in English, this was introduced at all levels of education in the year 2003 (IRC, 2008). This policy was then commenced and takes up properly after a period of five years in the level of education.

The motives for the use of English as a medium of instruction was to enable leaners to have the knowledge of medium of instruction so that knowledge or skills are acquired through this medium of instruction to be assessable for both public and private employment. Another reason was that, the students‘ performance from public secondary achievement test revealed poor knowledge or understanding of language of instruction among learners, since for the past decades at least forty six per cent (46%) of learners failed to acquire the required level of performance in English in the basic level of examination (Sua, 2007).

In Nigeria, evidence of this were observed when teachers were provided with solution to the test items from the beginning algebra ( Ladele, 2013 ). Teachers were required to provide correct answer to a wrong one, or confirm a correct answer, and identify the mistakes that they believed might have led to the students‘ incorrect solutions (Ladele, 2013). The purpose of this activity was to help the teachers see the issues from the students‘ perspective and to find out how much they knew about the existence of algebraic word problems. It was very surprising that some of the teachers arrived at wrong answers and by the amount of discussion the question generated. Some teachers themselves appeared to initially struggle with the meaning of some questions and they also appeared to be unaware of misconceptions about variables and expressions.

Solving word problems require the knowledge of mathematics, the language of the text and the language of instruction, which learners need to acquire and apply (Jitendra, 2009). However, it is often assumed that an understanding of solving word problems will be picked up if students are grounded in the new approach of problem solving (Ladele, 2013). Mathematical modelling approach 

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