The Bromley article was a bit different than previous readings. This article detailed certain facts about vocabulary and the English language in general. I found it incredibly interesting to read about the language. I knew English was a large and expansive language, but I did not know it was THAT much larger than French or German. I knew that a bunch of words had multiple meanings, but 70% of our most used words? I was astonished by that figure. However, the one fact that took me aback was the one that stated that the rules of English are more consistent and simpler than other languages. I always thought English was the toughest language to learn because of the nuances and rules. Apparently not. I guess I could see how this is the case, especially when compared to Chinese. All in all, I thought it was cool to learn more about my language.
In regards to my classroom, the bullet point that I noticed was number four, "Words are learned because of associations
that connect the new with the known." I think, especially in math, students must be able to draw connections between words to understand the vocabulary. There are multiple roots and affixes of math vocabulary that are prevalent in many, many words. As I have said before in this blog, I can utilize that aspect of math vocabulary via word clouds or other strategies. Focusing on those common words/parts of words can certainly build student vocabulary.
I was also taken aback by how massive English's vocabulary is.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I felt rather fortunate that I'm interested in teaching a language, as I was wondering a few times how unusual a "vocabulary section" in a math class would be. Teaching roots, however, is always a good idea, although (and I could be very mistaken), most of them may not be used too much outside of geometry.
And now that you've mentioned associations, you've got me wanting to know what your plans for that are! Don't dangle that sort of thing and then not tell, sir!