Although many of the word recognition skills needed to read narrative material are applicable to the language of mathematics, other specialized skills are also required to read mathematics materials. Among the factors contributing to students' problems in reading mathematics are the students' interest and motivational level, their readiness for reading mathematics, the reading level in narrative material, and the students' understanding of the purpose for reading mathematics. To help students associate the spoken words with the written word, teachers can point to words written on the chalkboard as they are spoken. In addition, an understanding of mathematical concepts can be developed through the use of a mathematics dictionary. Teachers should also be sensitive to the roots, prefixes, and suffixes as new words are introduced. In order to work successfully with symbols, students could be asked to interchange symbols, words, and pictorial representations. When reading graphic materials, students should be told to first survey the graphic to determine what it is about, the manner in which it is organized, and the information that it supplies. For the comprehension of mathematical sentences, students could be asked to write the sentences in as many different forms as possible. Finally, to prepare for reading word problems, they must be able to state the problem situation correctly in their own words. (HOD)