Just a thought (1)

When I am teaching my students, many of them are struggling to operate letters in mathematics including word problems. If specific numbers are written in given word problems, the students might solve them. However, if those numbers are replaced in letters, they cannot work out. For language learners, numbers in word problems are significant tips to find the solution because they can imagine what the number indicates by thinking realistic situations or comparing to other numbers. I suppose one of the reasons why my students feel difficulty in word problems is there are no numeric tips in word problems if the numbers are replaced in letters.