This paper examines the reading comprehension of Elementary School students (in the regular structure and in the Youth and Adults System- EJA) concerning statements of school mathematics problems which are needed to their resolution. Data were collected by interviewing twenty elementary school students in regular structure (ten 5th graders and ten 8th graders) and 10 students attending the EJA (five Stage I graduates and five Stage II graduates). Based on Piaget's critical-clinical method, the interviews presented to each subject had four problems adapted from two of the didactic collections more frequently used by local teachers in their classrooms. Data analysis was based on the Bakthinian notion of discursive genre and on authors that focus on cognitive aspects of reading and interpretation of texts as Solé and Kleiman; communication and language in educational practice in mathematics as Gómez-Granell, and on problem solving as Bacquet, and Medeiros. Results showed that subjects had failures in their reading comprehension in terms of linguistics and mathematics, and were unfamiliar with the "statement of mathematical problems" discursive genre; they also had no precise idea of what could mean solving a problem and had difficulty on retaining and maintaining adequate control of essential information present at the statements.
mathematics education; reading and interpretation of school mathematics problems; elementary education; youth and adults education