Assignment+Three

Vocabulary is so important! In my clinical I last semester I tried to emphasize words that were commonly used but that students might not necessarily know the correct definition of. Likewise, in my tutoring, I found that the proper terms were not always used because the student did not remember the correct definition of the word. My student ended up grasping a term he thought he could use without it hurting him. This may work in some subjects, but in math, the student must be able to understand exactly what the problem is asking him to do. Therefore, proper definitions are essential.

Chapter 8 discussed many methods a teacher can use to reinforce vocabulary terms along with their meanings.

In approaching this assignment I was drawn to the specific vocabulary strategies that would help the business student. For the majority of high school students the language in business will be topic specific. Finance, marketing, accounting and management all have their unique terms. Often times, if the terms are not learned and used within the context of the material, the words will have little meaning. For finance and accounting I like semantic maps. In this strategy the words are arranged in clusters that represent how semantic information is organized in the brain. The main topic is located in the center and the supporting concepts radiate outward. An example can be illustrated using the topic of accounting. Radiating out from there could be balance sheet, income statement, and general ledger. From these topics, specific terms could be introduced such as debit, credit and retained earnings, to name a few. The semantic map could be very beneficial in introducing a unit to high school students.

Another vocabulary strategy I particularly like for business classes is knowledge rating. I would love to experiment with this tool to see what my students already know, what they think they know and what they have no idea of. I think classes could be saved unnecessary repetition if familiar terms are not rehashed. On the other hand, it is critical that they know the industry specific definitions. Some terms that they may know in one context can mean something else in another context. Still, I think this strategy's value is to highlight critical words that most students are unfamiliar with. To be on the safe side, I believe I might still implement a pretest to test my student's vocabulary knowledge. Then I could ensure that the critical vocabulary information was being emphasized.

The text listed several online resources to help with vocabulary: thinkfinity.org, webenglishteacher.com, worldwidewords.org, and vocabulary.com. One that I have used since coming back to school has been dictionary.com. This site was recommended by the writing center. [] was a site I found to help with specific business needs. [] was another site I found to help with business skills. A number of other sites I found dealing with business English were specifically targeted for those in which English is the second language. These individuals need special help with terminology that enables them to function in a business setting. While our students still need this attention, English speaking students can more easily adapt to the industry specific definitions and therefore, would benefit more readily from business activities that enable them to hone their vocabulary skills. It is for this purpose I chose business activity sites.

One important fact that we, as business teachers, cannot overlook is that we must make sure that our students can use the proper words and grammar to convey the message we want them to be able to convey to our customer. How often will misspellings and poor grammar ruin our chance to win over a client that is necessary to keep our business afloat? If most students are never educated beyond high school we must give this discipline adequate attention. We must not underestimate the importance of taking time to promote writing and spelling skills.