Growing up, my family subscribed to the Reader’s Digest. Dad got to read it first, and then the rest of us would fight over it. One of my dad’s favorite features was “It Pays to Increase Your Word Power,” a multiple-choice quiz designed to help readers expand their vocabularies. He loved announcing his score at the dinner table and demonstrating his mastery of the month’s words. The title of that feature still holds true today: our vocabulary gives us power.
Vocabulary fuels learning. Every subject has its own language, and learning that language is part of learning the subject itself.
As I write this, we have just completed Week 3 of the University Center’s Summer STEM Academy for kindergarten through eighth-grade students. Every class had a vocabulary that was essential to its topic. Rocketry students learned terms such as thrust, gravity, drag, lift and apogee. A second grader in the slime class went home and insisted her grandmother buy an activator so they could make slime together. Grandma first had to figure out what an activator was.
When I asked robotics instructor Holly Blackstar about the vocabulary her students use, she replied: “Our team built a prototype robot with a strong chassis and two motors. We programmed an algorithm that used an ultrasonic sensor to detect obstacles. After calibrating the sensors, we tested the robot and debugged the code. We iterated our design several times to optimize its performance. In the end, our autonomous robot successfully completed the challenge with speed and precision.” These weren’t college engineering students. They were sixth, seventh, and eighth graders.
Vocabulary and learning go hand in hand, whether you’re in a university classroom, a STEM academy robotics lab, a doctor’s office receiving a new diagnosis or your own backyard tackling a DIY project.
Vocabulary enriches communication. It is estimated that more than one million words exist in the English language, yet the average adult knows about 42,000 of them. Even more surprising, roughly 1,000 words account for about 90% of written language. So, why do we need the other 999,000 words?
Clarity. Precision. Nuance. Technical understanding.
If I tell you I am mad, you have a general idea of how I am feeling. But if I tell you I am annoyed, furious or enraged, you have a clearer understanding. The right word paints a more precise picture of what I am feeling.
Higher education offers another example. The name of an institution tells us something about its mission and the education it provides. Is it a university, a liberal arts college, a community college, an academy, a conservatory or a technology or vocational school? (I think there is a future Ponca City Monthly article hiding in that list.)
Beyond the name are even more distinctions. Is it public or private? Is it a research university or a regional university? Is it a land-grant institution? Each term communicates something important about how that institution operates and the educational experience it offers.
This same principle applies to every discipline, hobby and profession. Vocabulary helps us communicate with greater precision and understanding.
Vocabulary unlocks opportunity. If you find yourself with a group of Cheeseheads, it helps to know the difference between a quarterback sneak and a screen pass. And if one of those Cheeseheads suddenly find himself among a group of Kopites, he will discover they speak an entirely different language of sports.
A medical clinic hiring a new RN expects applicants to know the difference between the fibula and the phalanges. Likewise, you expect your financial advisor to understand the difference between mutual funds and hedge funds.
Vocabulary opens doors. The words you know, and how well you use them, influence what you learn, how effectively you communicate, the careers you pursue, the hobbies you enjoy, the people with whom you connect and ultimately the way you understand the world around you.
So, just as Reader’s Digest reminded us all those years ago, it really does pay to increase your word power.
Go learn those words!