Student must be taught the language of mathematics right from primary grades

 One aspect of mathematization of language is the abstract thinking skill of translating words of a statement or verbal expression into an equation. 

This requires identifying the key phrases and symbols that represent mathematical operations and substituting them into an algebraic equation. 

This process can be broken down into steps:

•  Identifying the unknown variable or result

• Translating verbal expressions into algebraic expression 

In equations or formulas, the equality mathematical symbol "=" is commonly represents the following words or phras

• 'Equal' sign

• 'Equals' sign

• 'Equality' sign

• 'Equal to' sign 

In the verbal expression, the words that represent the sign of equality could be: Is / are / was / will be / equals / is equal to / results into. 

If the language of mathematics is understood properly, the word problems won't pose a challenge, therefore, one must learn to read and comprehend the text of the problem 

Four basic mathematics signs and their verbal expressions

• Addition (+): combined, increased, total of, sum, added to, together, plus, and

• Subtraction (-): minus, less than, less, fewer than, difference, decreased, take away, more than

• Multiplication (x): multiplied, product of, times, of

• Division (÷): divided by, into, per quotient of, percent / divided by 100, out of, ratio of

In order to understand language of mathematics, one must practice reading algebraic expressions since they describe relationship between numbers, variables, and operators to represent mathematical concepts - a sort of grammar of mathematics.

Reading of an equation essentially translates a numerical mathematical expression into a verbal or written description of the with numbers and alphabets as nouns operations as verbs or verb-phrases that separate the parts of expression

Reading and translating various expressions and equations is crucial for building linguistic understanding of mathematics.

Reading examples

3x + 5 = 11 should be read as "Three times x / plus five / equals 11".

2y - 4 = 6 should be read as "Two times y / minus four / equals 6 ".

5x² + 2x - 1 should read as "Five times x squared / plus two times x / minus one".