The purpose of this thesis is to examine whether the teacher's background affect students' approach to mathematics teaching. Characteristically, in Sweden today is that mathematics is perceived as difficult subject and that the number of foreign teachers has increased. The study examines a phenomenon which the relationship between the teacher's language accent and substance difficulties.

The method used for data collection is questionnaires, in order to investigate the phenomenon as the relationship between the teacher's accent and substance difficulties.

The investigation has been carried out based on the students' point of view, both secondary and primary school pupils. What difficulties have arisen in teaching?  What is the biggest obstacle to achieve the goals of mathematics, to understand the teacher's language accent first in order to understand the subject, or that mathematics is difficult in itself to be understood as a substance.

The result clearly shows that the teacher's accent does not affect teaching and students' view of mathematics as a subject. The students think that mathematics is a difficult subject in itself and the difficulty arises in the abstract data that is not reality linked, and that they rely too much on independent work with individual support as the teacher does not have time to. Students' learning is influenced by other factors like the socio-coherent, which Vygotskji mean. Communication is an important prerequisite in the socio-cultural interaction. It affected in turn by various factors, like cultural affinities, and how to speak and the tone used.