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Words that Students Don't Know

Started by Aster, January 31, 2020, 08:29:29 AM

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mamselle

Quote from: wareagle on February 19, 2020, 02:26:16 PM
Heifer.

In a class of students who thought they were going to become veterinarians.

Assign them a James Harriot book....!

M.
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.

Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.

RatGuy

In my essay assignment for 2nd-year students, one bullet point says that students should include "definitions of terminology" in their introduction. With the essay due at 5pm today, I've received five students in the last hour asking what "definitions of terminology" meant. Not sure any of this bodes well for their grades.

RatGuy

Reviving this thread to let everyone know that students don't know the word "garb," "hybrid," or "discipline" (as in subject area)

marshwiggle

Quote from: RatGuy on October 28, 2020, 05:32:38 AM
Reviving this thread to let everyone know that students don't know the word "garb," "hybrid," or "discipline" (as in subject area)

That's an expensive car, isn't it?
It takes so little to be above average.

apl68

Quote from: marshwiggle on October 28, 2020, 05:42:52 AM
Quote from: RatGuy on October 28, 2020, 05:32:38 AM
Reviving this thread to let everyone know that students don't know the word "garb," "hybrid," or "discipline" (as in subject area)

That's an expensive car, isn't it?

I thought it was a class that's online but also has some students in the actual classroom.
To us a child is born, to us a son is given. 
And the government will be upon his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. 
And the greatness of his government and peace will never end.

marshwiggle

Quote from: apl68 on October 28, 2020, 06:53:12 AM
Quote from: marshwiggle on October 28, 2020, 05:42:52 AM
Quote from: RatGuy on October 28, 2020, 05:32:38 AM
Reviving this thread to let everyone know that students don't know the word "garb," "hybrid," or "discipline" (as in subject area)

That's an expensive car, isn't it?

I thought it was a class that's online but also has some students in the actual classroom.

That was going to be my second guess.
It takes so little to be above average.

EdnaMode

My students don't know the word omit, and this often results in them doing more work than they need to.
I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now.

evil_physics_witchcraft

Ten years ago, in an Introductory Astronomy course, I had a student ask me what 'vicinity' meant.

marshwiggle

Has there ever been a study of vocabulary used in social media; specifically Twitter and Facebook? I'd guess for younger generations for whom those make up 90% of their "reading", the *lexicon is pretty limited.

(*whatever that is)
It takes so little to be above average.

EdnaMode

Quote from: marshwiggle on October 28, 2020, 08:31:33 AM
Has there ever been a study of vocabulary used in social media; specifically Twitter and Facebook? I'd guess for younger generations for whom those make up 90% of their "reading", the *lexicon is pretty limited.

(*whatever that is)

I receive emails from the Microsoft Office 365 spies (the same ones that tell me I spend too much of my work day answering email) and these messages routinely tell me that I use a larger variety of words than 90-something percent of their users. And that makes me wonder how many (or few) words do most people actually use?
I never look back, darling. It distracts from the now.

the_geneticist

Quote from: RatGuy on October 28, 2020, 05:32:38 AM
Reviving this thread to let everyone know that students don't know the word "garb," "hybrid," or "discipline" (as in subject area)

Well, I'm a geneticist and hybrid has a particular meaning in genetics that is different from the everyday meaning.  Don't even get me started on words like transcription, dominant, and mutation.

mamselle

From another thread, "least common denominator," "function of (x)" and "percent error" appear to be dim lights in the universe of scientific terms.

M.
Forsake the foolish, and live; and go in the way of understanding.

Reprove not a scorner, lest they hate thee: rebuke the wise, and they will love thee.

Give instruction to the wise, and they will be yet wiser: teach the just, and they will increase in learning.

Parasaurolophus

#42
Heliocentric/heliocentrism

Even with a labelled diagram and an explanation, it apparently wasn't clear.
I know it's a genus.

dismalist

That's not even wrong!
--Wolfgang Pauli

secundem_artem

One of my undergrad profs used to tell the story of one of his undergrad profs from back in the 1950's.  Apparently said professor had a student who defined brownian motion as diarrhea.
Funeral by funeral, the academy advances