Proficiency in Portuguese helps with Mathematics.
Being good at Portuguese can be an important step for students to do well in Mathematics, assured Professor Pasquale Cipro Neto in his column "Our Everyday Language" on CBN radio.
Text interpretation is fundamental to any subject, especially for understanding the problem statement. According to him, mathematical problems become clearer with good reading comprehension.
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“I want to remind you, first of all, that everything is text! Whoever doesn't know how to read will do poorly on the chemistry test, the physics test, the biology test, the history test, the geography test… Because, before anything else, it's necessary to understand the statement, which happens to be written in Portuguese. (…) It's no use knowing as much math as you want. If you don't understand the problem, you won't solve it,” he said. Pasquale cited the participation of Marcelo Viana and Carolina Araujo, researchers from IMPA – described by him as an “institute of excellence” – in the Conversa com Bial program, broadcast on November 13th.
He cites a question from the Fuvest exam that asked test-takers to find the square of 10%. "Of course, the most popular answer was 100%," Pasquale recalls. However, the answer is incorrect. The Portuguese teacher shows that a misunderstanding of the wording led many to get the question wrong. "The square of 10% is not the square of ten, but the square of ten divided by one hundred."
"It's so simple, just read! Of course, there are mathematical concepts involved, but these are ways of reading, presenting, and writing. We need to stimulate reasoning, reading, and comprehension," said Pasquale.
He suggests that teachers should not present mathematics as pure and simple calculation, but rather "translate" the expressions into understandable Portuguese to help improve student performance. "If the teacher doesn't do this, it creates a mystery, something absolutely abstract that seems to go from nowhere to nowhere. It is necessary to read. To understand what is read."
Listen to the full audio here .