Word problem solving in contemporary math education: A plea for semantic- linguistic skills training

This study pointed out that word problem solving instruction in Realistic Math Education (RME) may have insufficient attention for teaching semantic-linguistic skills to handle semantic complexities in word problems. We investigated the performances of 80 sixth grade students, classified as successful and less successful word problem solvers based on a standardized mathematics test from the RME curriculum, on word problems that ask for both sophisticated representation skills and semanticlinguistic skills. The results showed that even successful word problem solvers had a low performance on semantically complex word problems, despite adequate performance on semantically less complex word problems. Less successful word problem solvers had low scores on both semantically simple and complex word problems. Results showed that reading comprehension was only related to the successful word problem solvers’ performance on semantically complex word problems. On the basis of this study, we concluded that semantic-linguistic skills should be given a (more) prominent role during word problem solving instruction in RME.