| This action research project investigated the difficulties my students faced with respect to comprehension and vocabulary in solving word problems in mathematics. The targeted group consists of grade 5 students of Binus International School, situated in Jakarta city the capital of Indonesia. The difficulty in solving word problems in mathematics was documented through teacher observation of student’s daily work and student questionnaire. Upon analysis of the data for reasonable causes it was discovered that students suffer from math anxiety, and have poor reading comprehension. In addition the ISA scores in math revealed that the students were weak in solving word problem. A review of different strategies proposed by the scholars in this field along with analysis of problem solving, led to following applications in the classroom: student created math glossaries, use of math dictionaries, visual aids, use of manipulative, reinforced mathematical concepts and vocabulary and finally using the drawing model method to solve word problems. As a result of the above mentioned strategies, the students showed progress in understanding of mathematical vocabulary and comprehension of text in solving word problems in math by using model drawing method. |