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?