Words I've used (in their context) that have confused my students this week. I know these are words that confused them because they've said: "You use really big words that make us feel stupid":
1. Superfluous, as in: "Your use of "because" in this essay is superfluous. The reason is NOT because..."
2. Redundant, as in: "Get rid of the redundant words in your sentence."
3. Ramifications, as in: "What are the ramifications of legalizing marijuana?"
4. Incentive, as in: "What incentives can you provide yourself to help you stay awake in class?"
5. Dissatisfied, as in: "I'm dissatisfied with this passage because it doesn't quite capture the mood the author has set up in the introduction." A student then commented: "I feel dissatisfact-ay-shunned, too."
And this is why I am rejoicing that (on our quarter system), a whole summer away from students who do not understand basic words is beckoning, and it'll be three months before I see them again in the Fall. This gives me time to gear up for superfluous students who feel education is redundant in their lives, students who barely consider the ramifications of using alcohol as an incentive to fill their dissatisfied lives.
What I hate is when I assign a reading, and we read out a passage and I say "that word's difficult: what does it mean here?" and no one can tell me. So I say, "did you look it up?" Nope. Why would we ever put forth that extra bit of effort to understand the reading? I'm serious: they never, ever look up anything, ever.
ReplyDeleteI had an entire class discussion about a quirky personal essay on marginalia that gets anthologized all over the place. I asked students what they thought, and we had a very dull "discussion." Finally, I said, "but do you agree? Do you find marginalia so charming when you find them in your used textbooks?" Finally, one brave boy said "I don't know what marginalia is." "Are. It's plural. Did you look it up?" "No." "It's in the title of the essay. It's the topic of the essay. How did you hope to understand the essay if you didn't look it up?" Shrug. That's their answer to so much: shrug.
But looking things up these days is so hard. Back in the day, we just had to click on google or dictionary.com. Nowadays, students have to get up and get a dictionary or make a note to look the word up the next time they're in the library. We had it easy. Don't expect the same results under today's harsh conditions.
DeleteAdd this to the list of reasons I am looking for work outside academia.
DeleteGeez Looeez.
DeleteI have tenure, and so would have immediately announced to the class, "You all are awarded zero points for today's 10-point quiz. Oh, and there will be a pop quiz next meeting over the reading assigned for that, which will include the definitions of words in the reading."
Poor pedagogy? Probably. But appropriate.
I knew we were in trouble when my students started showing an inability to understand what words like "superficial" and "national" meant.
ReplyDeleteIt's only gonna get worse.
A colleague had two students who got angry during a class discussion in which their classmates were using appropriate vocabulary. They thought the other students were "using fancy words" to make fun of them. One actually got so irate the proffie had to end class and call security.
ReplyDeleteI had a student insist during peer review that one of her peers was using a word that wasn't a word. I don't remember what it was now, but the only thing that shut her up was me pulling out my phone, plugging the word into a dictionary app, and showing her that it was a word, he had spelled it correctly, and he had used it correctly.
ReplyDeleteWas it a trick word like "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious"?
DeleteIncidentally, here's a riddle:
How do you keep an American idle?
Southern Bubba? I'll bite: how?
DeletePS. I had two students argue over the word "salient." One insisted it was made up.
I'll tell you tomorrow. Just hold tight until then.
DeleteHow in hell can someone live for eighteen years, four of them in high school, and not know words like superficial,superfluous, incentive, redundant, or NATIONAL!!!!?????
ReplyDeleteCheese and crackers, what are they doing between the ages of 5 and 18?
We may have to use a new term besides snowflakes. I shall call them Astronaut Trainees. They're taking up space.
Hah, Gary, I ask myself that question EVERY day, because these were just the words they didn't know this week (every week, a new list forms, and usually, I wonder to myself where they've kept their heads for 13 years)...
DeleteAnd I LOVE your definition of people taking up space!!!
"Cheese and crackers, what are they doing between the ages of 5 and 18?"
DeleteI believe watching "American Idol," since they ask me whether I don't miss it, when I have labs on Tuesday nights.
My reply would be, "I don't miss it. I never watch it, so I don't miss it."
Delete(1) I had a student in my general-ed astronomy class this semester who had trouble with that one. He got a C in the course.
ReplyDelete(2) In the U.K., that's a close synonym for "unemployed."
(3) Ever seen the RYS post, "May your perfidy ramify through your life"? It's one of the all-time best, and easy to find: just type "perfidy ramify" into Google.
(4) Really? I though even former Chinese Communists now had incentives.
(5) Well, that one's got four syllables!
Worry.
Frod, if they even knew what a syllable was, I'd be grateful. "Syllable? Yeah, I have my copy of that in my room."
DeleteAnd thanks, the "May your perfidy ramify through your life" was fabulous! I love that it ends with a word my students also mispronounce: irrelevant. They've been saying "Irrevelant"
DeleteThanks for sharing, CC. Your post makes me grateful to be teaching nonnative speakers, who are aware enough of their language issues to take criticism about them (and the good ones even work to improve). Quite a few of them are better writers than the average North American flake, even with the second-language handicap.
ReplyDeleteStill, most of them are too shy to ask what words mean during lectures when I use a term that they don't know, even though I generally try to be encouraging (probably unlike previous language teachers, given the system here). I do draw the line if someone asks for a basic definition of a concept that has been sufficiently covered in past readings/lectures, but in those cases the rest of the class usually seems 100% behind me.
Edna, EXACTLY! If these were nonnnative speakers, I'd be less outraged! But having taught English Language Learners before, I can also attest to their being better writers than many of my North American flakes, mostly because they're better students, overall, who work hard.
Delete