Words or numbers: The essence of language teachers’ unappreciation of mathematics

As proved by varied researches, English language teachers, with their burning passion in the realm of words, have constantly updated themselves with educational trends and timely methods and techniques with regard to teaching this discipline so that they can be efficient and effective in the learning process. Armed with pedagogical skills in language teaching, language teachers, as observed, apparently do not dwell themselves so much on the world of numbers, or simply, world of Mathematics, which in their roles as educators, plays a vital role with regard to measurement of student learning. Hence, this paper considered this inquiry as an attempt to understand language teacher’s unappreciation of Mathematics at the University of Perpetual Help System Laguna. Research questions occurred as to what unappreciation of mathematics meant to the participant and as to how they experienced this phenomenon. The study, employing psychological phenomenology, analyzed the participants’ verbatim responses which resulted in six themes (Inevitable Unappreciated Discipline, Adjusting for Oneself, Mental Burden Experience, Complicating Life, Avoiding Expansion of Intellectual Horizon, Realizing Reality) categorized into textural (what) and structural (how) descriptions of the phenomenon. The research study concludes with the participants having clear images of Mathematics as evidenced and detailed that they truly dislike the subject as it creates much difficulty and puzzlement in their minds. The varied scenarios depicting the participants’ unpleasant experiences with Mathematics clearly affected and heightened their unapppreciation of this area of study.