The vital role of language in mathematics performance is widely recognized. Most people see mathematics language only in the context of word problems, but it is much more than that. Every mathematical idea involves three components: linguistic, conceptual, and procedural. To learn an idea means to create linguistic and conceptual models for it. We need to have a language container to receive, comprehend and explain a concept. Without an internalized language container, we need to relearn the concept every time we encounter it.