Reading literacy and learning mathematics

The thesis is about reading literacy in relation to learning mathematics. The first part outlines some types of literacy: reading literacy, mathematics literacy and content literacy. We describe factors of literacy and some reading improvement strategies are presented. We also present eight mathematical competences within the framework of mathematical literacy. Theoretical part continues with specific features of mathematical texts, difficulties that occur when reading these texts, and the role of reading in mathematics. Theoretical part is concluded by presenting three approaches for learning to read with comprehension and six support techniques for learning to read with comprehension in relation to problem solving. Teachers can use these approaches and techniques to help students improve their reading comprehension. In the empirical part of the thesis we present a pilot research, in which we investigated, whether mathematical symbols and pictorial information in mathematical problems are an obstacle for students of the seventh grade in solving them. Three tasks and three versions of each of the tasks were composed for this purpose. Each student had to solve one version of the three different tasks. Our research results showed that students are best at solving tasks that consist only of text. Their results are lower in solving tasks that include mathematical symbols and lowest in tasks than include pictures