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One of the student error often encountered in solving algebra problems is to transform the problem in verbal representation to algebraic symbols or to mathematical models. This error looks small, but usually the step becomes the first step students in solving the problem, so this error will impact on the next steps. The ability to translate from one form of representation to another is a fundamental ability to build students' mathematical understanding. Related to this matter, this research aims to investigate the translation of mathematical representation from verbal representation to symbol representation and symbol representation to verbal representation which viewed from learning style.

 

Symbolic representation in question is the equation or mathematical model and mathematical expression in problem solving and verbal representation in question is a sentence or words used in answering the problem or write down the steps of problem solving. In general, the translation between mathematical representations is the process of converting a given representation (source) to another form of representation (target). The translation is done in four stages: unpacking the source, preliminary coordination, constructing the target, determining equivalence.

 

The type of this research is descriptive research using qualitative approach. Descriptive data of the translation between the mathematical representation of students is obtained by assigning translation tasks and then digging other important information through job-based interviews. The subject of this research is the students of class VIII SMP. Students are classified by style of learning by providing a learning style questionnaire adapted from Kolb's Learning Style Inventory and providing math skills tests to acquire students of equal ability.

 

The results showed that for all categories of learning styles, students were able to translate mathematical representations of verbal representation to symbols and from symbol to verbal. However, in translating from symbol representation to verbal representation some subjects have difficulty in sorting out activities at each stage. In general, students perform the same activities at each stage of translation except in preliminary coordination activities. In these activities, each student coordinates the initial understanding in different ways.

 

Subjects who studied assimilating style to do the translation by looking at the source presented first, then linking numbers and letters before forming the target. The subject of accommodating learning style tends to be short in translation between representations, since the subject does the translation activity using his intuition so that it can be identified through interview (verbal symbol translation). Convert-style learning subjects perform complete translational steps explaining the reasons at each stage. The diverging subject of learning style translates by using the concept contained in the source to be attributed to the form of target representation.

 

The conclusion of this study is that each subject shows different processes in translating representations of symbols to verbal representations and vice versa in accordance with the characteristics of their learning styles.

translation; verbal representation; symbol representation; algebra; Kolb learning style