Academics vocabulary (or better known as content-specific vocabulary) is the set of words that are seen or communicated in certain academic courses. There are many different names for academic vocabulary, but they all talk about the basic terms used to communicate in contents.
From this article, the authors talk about how academic vocabulary is important, but there are many other categories that academic vocabulary breaks down into. Words can be domain specific, but other vocabulary words can be used cross-curricular. What one word means in math class could mean something different in biology or chemistry. These general academic vocabulary terms appear a lot of the time, and students have to make the distinguish between the two or three meanings. After all of the research, the authors broke down academic words into their own set of five categories. I think theirs it a little more intense due to the addition of metalanguage, but I think this is a very thorough way of deciphering the words and their make up.
While I was reading this article, I was hooked by the name. I love talking and reading about my content's vocabulary terms. However, as soon as I started reading, I started reflecting on the vocabulary I teach my students. I expect them to know the terms, but I tend to forget that they have another meaning engrained into their minds due to past courses and teachers in mathematics or other non-mathematics academic courses. I need to be more understanding of their confusion and lack to memorize new terms in a short time of exposure. I also started thinking about a new kind of vocabulary that teachers and students are learning to incorporate and answer. COMMON CORE VOCABULARY. The students need to know whether they are explaining, comparing, discussing, etc. I think this is another set of general academic vocabulary that I would incorporate in my personal break down of the overall academic vocabulary topic.
Vocabulary is so important, and we must teach it well not only in our content; we need to expose students to the different vocabulary terms whether they are specific or general and not shun their multiple knowledge due to cross-curricular use of certain words. This just gives us a chance to make connections!
Abbey,
ReplyDeleteAs you said in your post, it is important to consider students' previous knowledge about certain terms. Often, students are confused because they have been exposed to information that conflicts with the new vocabulary. Perhaps they have knowledge of another word that sounds the same, spelled similarly, or has a familiar definition; either way, it is important to be understanding of these situations and patient with students who are trying to learn new terms. It is also necessary for students to be regularly exposed to content specific vocabulary. This will help not only with academic success, but long term attention to detail.
Nice job,
Jordan