Vocabulary is foundational to learning. A student's success in any class is largely determined by his/her grasp of basic ideas and vocabulary.

Learning a subject is learning a language. Many problems students have in learning may often be traced back to a weak understanding of a particular word. It is in the best interest of all concerned that a teacher pay careful attention to a student's acquisition of basic vocabulary. The better grasp a student has of the meanings of words in a particular field, the better understanding he/she will have of the field itself.

It takes more than just a cursive reading of a definition to comprehend the meaning of a new word. The concept represented by a word must be studied thoroughly enough to integrate the word into one's working vocabulary. Only then will a student be able to think with it and engage profitably in further discussion with people who are fluent in the subject language.Half the battle in the acquisition of knowledge is a clear understanding of words. Learning a subject is learning a language. Parroting back definitions is never enough. A fuzzy comprehension of key vocabulary makes it difficult for students to gain from classroom discussion. Looking through the "fuzzy" glasses of weak word definitions, their entire class experience becomes fuzzy, so they find themselves confused and discouraged. Since they DON'T understand, they may wrongly conclude that they CAN'T understand and give up trying.