The influence of humanities on the teaching of technical vocabulary

Abstract

A part of research in education is related to innovation. This means trying to create new approaches or teaching techniques to the object or process being taught. It has always being said that there is a gap between science/technology and arts/humanities. For this reason, this paper tries to show some examples of how to link and apply these branches of knowledge among them, as part of an innovative and creative teaching/learning process. As lexis and languages apply to everything, because all the objects and concepts need significant to express their significations, the terms of study are coupled in Spanish/English pairs. This way, students can learn vocabulary through contrast, comparison and semantic connections which trace the evolution of meanings. The complement of visuals and images helps capture the attention of students who can see the language class as a complete mosaic that links humanistic and technical knowledge. Both similarities and differences may act as a mental trigger to store vocabulary in the memory. The study has focused three war terms such as bayoneta/bayonet, bazuca/bazooka and cañón/cannon to see what type of historical, musical or cultural implications could make students preserve the meaning of these words in their mental reservoir. In addition, the complement of visuals and images helps capture the attention of students who can see the language class as a more complete approximation to knowledge. This approach to teaching tries to capture attention in a way that makes students not forget the contents of the class in their long-term memory.