Vocabulary - Academic Language

Analyze & Compare to Determine Meaning

• • Analyze the roots to determine the meaning of pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.  (Old example Analyze the roots )

Reference - Key Root Words in Science

• Roots, Prefixes & Suffixes in Biology 

• Roots, Prefixes & Suffixes in Chemistry

• Roots, Prefixes & Suffixes in Physics

• Roots, Prefixes & Suffixes in Earth and Space Science

• Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms 

• Botanary 

Demonstrating Understanding of Root Words

• Constructing sentence to demonstrate understanding 

Visualizing Meanings by Examining Roots 

• • Scientific Terms - Slides

  • Generic Terms - Slides

  • Template for Vizualization of Meanings

Building a Root Word Glossary

• Choose a difficult term in your discipline and enter in the appropriate column in the Root Word Glossary. Identify the prefixes, suffixes and roots and place in the appropriate columns 

  • Identify the meanings of these terms.  You may use the Dictionary of Word Roots  to accomplish this. 

  • Provide additional examples of the use of each prefix, suffix or root word.  You may use OneLook to accomplish this.

Deciphering terms – Taxonomy and classification

Once you know basic root words for a science, you can determine the meanings of new terms.  Table 1.2 has a list of animal classifications, many of which you may find unfamiliar or even unpronounceable. Analyze the roots (using table 1.3) and match each phylum, class or order to a likely definition.  Do not use a dictionary or glossary, but rather draw conclusions based on an analysis of the root words.

• Deciphering biology (taxonomy) and chemistry terms

Etymology, Cognates; Foreign Roots

• • History of the English Language

    • Geography of adopted words - Develop a map showing the flow of terms into the English language by connecting arrows between the place of origin and London, England, using a Padlet file

    • Mind Map of adopted words - Create a Mind Map using Coggle.it to show how English borrows words from many languages. 

    • Mind Map - Coggle file

  • Cognate activity - Understand the similarity between English words and those in other languages