Three mathematics education researchers discuss their findings on the use of diagrams in math instruction for English language learners. The authors show how diagrams can help students who are English learners better develop mathematical thinking and communicate their mathematical understanding.

We propose that there exists mathematical knowledge for teaching (MKT) specific to visual representations (VRs), abbreviated MKT-VR. We define a VR as a graphic creation, such as a diagram or drawing, which illustrates quantities and shows quantitative relationships or which illustrates geometric properties of figures and shows geometric…