29 September 2009

Should we bother with professional jargon?

I have been resisting another blog (I already have at least four, maybe more - not sure) for some time, but now it seems unavoidable - I have to write something with students to have an ongoing conversation with you. So I'll write time to time; most likely as a reaction on what I hear and/or see in the classroom. An idea, suggestion... I do not know.

So, for the beginning, I'll drop a link to a glossary specially written for the Early Years practitioners - http://www.childlink.co.uk/glossary.php. You'll need Athens access to see it. Get Athens from the College library.

It's a tiny glossary. I imagine, as specialists in Early Years you'll easily find more terms which could be there.

Just for sparkling a discussion, I'd like to suggest that all those special words, terms, used by very few people are totally useless. Why not to use natural, simple language? I am struggling to understand why people bother with jargon. Do you agree?

5 comments:

  1. how will we learn our professional technical terms if tutors and peers dumb down the terms to simple wording?

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  2. Although I fully believe that there are valid causes for and against the use of 'jargon', in my personal opinion there is a difference between 'jargon' and 'terminology'. Time permitting, I'll expand on this notion in my blog later.

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  3. Having just looked at the homework, thanks for the reminder! I have to agree with Claire, but using professional jargon has a time and a place and people / companies/ organisations using it have to be aware that not everyone reading their information will automatically know what it is saying. look back a few years to texting or txtng, that is almost a recognised language. now for a bit of 'jargon'... "Should all NQTs be relying on the IQ or the norm-reference when dealing ceiling results" I hope you get it!!!

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  4. I like the use of terminology and jargon if I understand it. During a recent Governor's meeting, terminology was flying around the room at a rate of knots that I was for most of the time able to keep up with. This was mainly because I work in that environment and hear those terms often spoken about. Abbreviations (which they tend to be - PPA, LSA, ELP, IEP, TA, KS1, KS2, FS, LO, DO etc)) save time and breath. There is however a time and a place for such terminology and it is important to recognise and acknowledge those boundaries.

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