PROFICIENCY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE: A SIGNIFICANT TOOL IN SOLVING WORD PROBLEMS IN MATHEMATICS

Many research works have indicated that English Language and Mathematics are very important subjects in Nigerian secondary schools without which no studentcan proceed to tertiary institutions (FGN, 2013). The two subjects are closely related and also interrelated. This paper attempts to point out the link between the two subjects and how the skills in English Language and its comprehension are very useful and significant in solving word problems in mathematics. Three research questions were asked in order to guide the study and a survey research design was employed. A purposive sampling technique was used to select three secondary schools from each of the three states in the South-West of Nigeria namely: Ogun, Oyo and Lagos States, and one in Gainesville, Florida. Forty students (20 males, 20 females) were randomly chosen from each school, which gives a sample size of 400 students. Three validated and reliable research instruments were used to collect data for the study, namely Mathematics Word Problems Test (MWBT), Mathematics Non-word Problems Test (MNPT) and Students Questionnaire (SQ). The findings of the study showed that the students performed poorer in word problems than the non-word problems due to inability to translate and interprete the word into mathematics statements, among others. Based on the findings, conclusion was drawn, and recommendations were made.