In the research I conducted in the

In the research I conducted in the classroom in the UK described at the start of this chapter, I analysed how learners of English engaged with a task set by their teacher to write arithmetic word problems. My analysis of students’ interaction as they worked together on this task suggests that the task itself has some important affordances (cf. Barwell 2009). In particular, the task did not require students to in- terpret an unfamiliar context, as is the case with solving a problem set by the teacher or a textbook. Rather, the students were able to draw on contexts that were familiar to them and to draw on their language repertoires to express these contexts. Students wrote word problems about shopping, buying presents for their families, earning pocket money, going to concerts or about monsters and morgues. The task also al- lowed students to engage with the language of word problems, infusing them with their own forms of expression. And writing word problems provided opportunities for the students to learn English and to make connections between the mathematics, context and language of word problems. The word problem task does not eliminate the tensions discussed in this chapter, but it does allow diversity of expression and