Solving Arithmetic Standard Word Problems Involving Representations and/or Language for Number Sense in Primary School

A Literature Review

Abstract

Solving arithmetic word problems (AWP), tasks for number sense have been identified as difficult in mathematics for learners since they require identifying, interpreting, and concluding words to arithmetic number notations, which is more difficult for primary school learners. The learner’s lack of procedural knowledge leads to incorrect computation and incorrect answers. The difficulty stems from the teachers’ inability to prepare linguistic, structural, and syntactic activities and tasks that help learners interpret and make sense of language and representational aspects to understand number notations. The study sought to examine a literature review on learning for number sense in primary school using arithmetic word problems involving representations and/or language. This study reviewed the literature on scientific articles published on linguistic and representational aspects of learning word problems in primary schools. After a manual screening process, 4 out of 52 articles were relevant to the study. The findings revealed that the reviewed papers in this study showed that learners in primary schools struggled to represent arithmetic word problems graphically and symbolically and eventually solve the problems. In conclusion, learners need to be guided in linking representations, symbols, and language when solving arithmetic word problems to help learners make sense of numbers.