Earlier quoted context omitted.
Grew up in India. As the sibling commenter notes, this is likely an older British expression that has survived in Indian English. It's hard to remember now, but I think the way I thought about it when I was taught is that "3 × 4" is combining 3 and 4 into a larger number 12. The "3 ÷ 4" was not special, and "by" there was just an abbreviation of "divided by" like you say. For what it's worth, I think times usually sh…
We usually say "three fours are twelve" Instead of "three times four is twelve"
Yep, that's true — but I think an oral question would be phrased as "What is three times four?", correct?