This paper presents a qualitative and quantitative study on the response to word problems of bilingual Arab students in a preparatory year math program, in an English medium university. Dichotomous and polychotomous grading schemes were used in order to investigate the students’ responses to word problems. Among the results, it was found that the more linguistically loaded a word problem is, the more likely students may try to avoid them. The students did not seem to follow any known strategy for solving word problems. Moreover, guessing levels seemed to be higher in word problems. Some educational implication of this study and recommendations are enumerated.

word problems, mathematics, pre-calculus, bilingual Arabs, preparatory year program, quantitative, qualitative.