Research in Relation to Vocabulary by nick
nickof Dover Plains's entry into Varsity Tutor's July 2016 scholarship contest
- Rank:
- 0 Votes
Research in Relation to Vocabulary by nick - July 2016 Scholarship Essay
When was the last time you researched the meaning of a word or phrase? Surprisingly, many students and adults alike will say that it was only recently they stumbled over a verb or tripped on an adjective while participating in their daily activities. It begs the question, why does nobody ever search for the definition of a word instead of ignoring it? As a species, we have the largest volume of knowledge stored on a device that fits in our pocket and we use everyday. The smartphones we use contain piles of information and definitions and yet hardly anyone ever uses it for research. Children and adults, alike, should use this information they have at their fingertips instead of pushing it aside as if it’s useless.
Recently me Economy and Government teacher told the class to identify any metaphors and/or analogies on the Monopoly board. Of course I believed I knew both of these words but analogy had always escaped me. I answered the question and had the idea that my answer was suitable, however, the next day changed my perception. My classroom experience was flipped upside down when my teacher returned from his trip and asked, “so did any of you actually look up what analogy or metaphor meant? Or did you just write down an answer that you thought was right?” Not a student, including myself, looked up what either of those words meant. Acknowledging the ignorance of his students, Mr. Hill responded to the silence with humor. He tried to laugh off the mistake we and recounted how students almost never researched the definition of a term even if they had a means to do so right in front of them.
So why do we fall prey to our ignorance? Well, as humans we always take the easy way out. I find that allowing any student to research unknown definition is crucial to their education. At first it seems alright and one may say “oh I’ll look it up later” and then forget or just not care enough to. Then one begins making the assumption that they know the word and it becomes a habit, as filthy and degrading as picking your nose in public. I would be unable to recall all the times where I am sitting in my classroom and a student will turn to me and ask what something means. First of all, we all have a computer sitting right in front of us that we can use at any moment, so asking me is unnecessary. At one point a student had asked what IPO meant, in reference to stocks, I was unsure so looked it up on Google. Immediately I was presented with the definition; IPO stands for initial public offering or in layman's terms the price a stock starts at when a company goes public.
Is the problem all our fault? Not really considering that most of the time the students who don’t research unknown terms were never expected to. Our school system never asks that a teacher force students to look up words and no teacher really pushes for their students to analyse what a word means, unless it pertains to the topic at hand. What should be done in order to stop this plague upon society is for students to be taught at an early age to study a word's meaning instead of ignoring the fact that they don’t understand it. Take control of the uncertainty and never be stumped by an overly complicated expression or utter a comment erroneously. Most of all, do not falter when it comes to not understanding something; it’s impossible to remember every little detail, so take those few extra minutes to find a definition and add that locution, vocable, or appellation to your expanding vocabulary.