The association between mathematical word problems and reading comprehension

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate the interplay between mathematical word problem skills and reading comprehension. The participants were 225 children aged 9–10 (Grade 4). The children’s text comprehension and mathematical word problem‐solving performance was tested. Technical reading skills were investigated in order to categorise participants as good or poor readers. The results showed that performance on maths word problems was strongly related to performance in reading comprehension. Fluent technical reading abilities increased the aforementioned skills. However, even after controlling for the level of technical reading involved, performance in maths word problems was still related to reading comprehension, suggesting that both of these skills require overall reasoning abilities. There were no gender differences in maths word problem‐solving performance, but the girls were better in technical reading and in reading comprehension. Parental levels of education positively predicted children’s maths word problem‐solving performance and reading comprehension skills.

Keywords:

• math word problems
• reading comprehension
• good and poor readers
• fourth graders

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the Academy of Finland #213486.