In Chemistry there are a lot of new words that are not much outside of the sciences. The words can be very intimidating. Due to the fear chemistry students have of the words that are brought before them in a classroom, I have chosen to do my inquiry project on vocabulary. Without a firm foundation in the vocabulary students will become easily frustrated and confused.
I sometimes still get the meaning of some words backwards because the words are very similar. Also, new vocabulary words typically come in pairs. By coming in pairs, students tend to get confused and just give up. I hope to give my students some tools and present new words in a way that will help them not only remember but also understand.
Through the research I have done I am seeing a lot of work about word association, use of etymology, and putting words to music. Personally, I have found word association the best way of remembering the difference between vocabulary terms that are brought out in pairs. I hope as I continue to do more in-depth research that I found ideas for introducing vocabulary that I have not thought of.
Reading articles and having to really look at how important reading in my content, has made me see how difficult the skill is. It is a skill that I was able to pick up on, but I see myself as a good reader. I could not imagine how difficult the task can be for a student who is not confident in their reading abilities.
I certainly empathize with the 'fear of big words' when it comes to reading science content. A lot of the science courses i've taken have seemed to be focused more on vocabulary retention but i always seem to forget those big words as soon as i was tested on them. I use to always make flash cards to master those scary science words but i found that most of the back of the book glossary definitions never really stuck with me after the chapter was over. But i definitely agree that word association is key in really 'getting' vocabulary!
ReplyDeleteIn our discipline (and not just ours), I think vocabulary is *the* foundation to building understandings. Our content, especially at the introductory level, is matter-of-fact and straightforward, and understanding the basic vernacular of a concept is, to me, critical for a deeper understanding. I learned this lesson in OChem, something I'm sure you can appreciate :-P
ReplyDeleteIm all about the vocabulary, vocabulary, vocabulary. I agree with all of you and say that vocabulary is important in any content. To fully understand anything that you are reading, one must first know what the words mean, or be able to deduce what a word means by the words surrounding it. I also think that it is funny, I might not be able to remember all from high school, but I do remember alot of the vocabulary that I learned.
ReplyDelete