RADIO SHOW/AUDIO PODCAST
Solutions...with Courtney Anderson! (SwCA)
Episode 159 -
Originally aired 8/1/2014 9:00 AM -
JOYFUL ART OF BUSINESS! series -
"Is The Size of Your Vocabulary Limiting The Size of Your Paycheck?"
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TALK SHOW EPISODE NOTESIn our JOYFUL ART OF BUSINESS™ series we explore how to combine the positive benefits of our professional endeavors (“business”) with the overall positive emotional return on our efforts (“joy”). The act of engaging in professional endeavors, in any capacity (i.e., as an employee, employer, entrepreneur, contractor, volunteer, paid, full time, part time, intermittently, etc.) is an expression of our ideas and creative talents (“art”). All of this is in furtherance of our mission to surpass our goals! Our episode today is, “Is The Size of Your Vocabulary Limiting The Size of Your Paycheck?”
Whoa! Do words matter that much? I was teased as a kid in school for "using big words" and "reading too much" (it was not fun being teased and taunted). I have a lifelong love of words and reading. I was not popular when I was growing up, especially when I would rudely "correct" people for using or pronouncing words inaccurately (so don't do this!). I am naturally biased to want to believe that all of the teasing had a silver lining and that there is a benefit to having larger vocabularies. That does not mean it is true, just that I would love for it to be true as it would make me feel better. So, as we discuss in many of our programs, what does the data tell us? Why is vocabulary important (for my income)? 1) From E. D. Hirsch, Jr., a professor emeritus of education and humanities at the University of Virginia, “there’s a positive correlation between a student’s vocabulary size in grade 12, the likelihood that she will graduate from college, and her future level of income. The reason is clear: vocabulary size is a convenient proxy for a whole range of educational attainments and abilities—not just skill in reading, writing, listening, and speaking but also general knowledge of science, history, and the arts. […] Simply put: knowing more words makes you smarter. And between 1962 and the present, a big segment of the American population began knowing fewer words, getting less smart, and becoming demonstrably less able to earn a high income. […]" (http://www.city-journal.org/2013/23_1_vocabulary.html) 2) Higher vocabulary ~ higher income (http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2012/06/higher-vocabulary-higher-income/#.U9mYeYBdVmg) How vocabulary affects your family (not just your professional and income opportunities) 3) From Stanford University, “Fifty years of research has revealed the sad truth that the children of lower-income, less-educated parents typically enter school with poorer language skills than their more privileged counterparts. By some measures, 5-year-old children of lower socioeconomic status score more than two years behind on standardized language development tests by the time they enter school.” (http://news.stanford.edu/news/2013/september/toddler-language-gap-091213.html)" 4) From Rice University, "The finding that children living in poverty hear fewer than a third of the words heard by children from higher-income families has significant implications in the long run. When extrapolated to the words heard by a child within the first four years of their life these results reveal a 30 million word difference. That is, a child from a high-income family will experience 30 million more words within the first four years of life than a child from a low-income family. This gap does nothing but grow as the years progress, ensuring slow growth for children who are economically disadvantaged and accelerated growth for those from more privileged backgrounds." (http://centerforeducation.rice.edu/slc/LS/30MillionWordGap.html) 5) From USA Today, "Previous research has shown that low-income children tend to have far smaller vocabularies than their middle-class peers, a deficit that dooms many to an inferior education before it even begins. "Demographics isn't destiny," he said, "but vocabulary might be.”" (http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/12/06/vocabulary-student-scores/1746693/) Wow. If our vocabulary is our destiny (and that of our children) we need to take it very seriously. What is your vocabulary? Here are some free online tests I located for you to explore your vocabulary (the first one is an American-Brazilian research project and the second one is a group project from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand). I took both of them (the first one is shorter than the second). - http://testyourvocab.com/ - http://my.vocabularysize.com/ Here is another link regarding vocabulary size from The Economist - http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2013/05/vocabulary-size Once I know what my current size of vocabulary is, how do I enhance and enlarge it? Read. Learn more about the world (by exploring, reading, learning). Make your vocabulary a priority. The benefits of expanding your vocabulary extend far beyond the size of your paycheck (help children, open you up to new information and experiences, etc.). Knowing a new word means that you know a new part of our world. You deserve to know as much as you possibly can! |
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