The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

The Independent Voice of Southern Methodist University Since 1915

The Daily Campus

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Students impress with Anthropology projects

Professors appreciate effort

Rarely do undergraduate students get a chance to study in the real world and learn about their chosen field without having a book and highlighter in hand. Professor Abigail Bartoschesky doesn’t follow the average read, lecture and exam curriculum. In her Anthropology 3361 Language and Culture course, students are able to participate in class conversation and do assignments covering what they see and observe outside of classroom.

Bartoschesky assigns two field projects each semester.

The first is to go anywhere that you can people watch (the airport, Starbucks, gym, etc), eavesdrop on other peoples’ conversations for a couple hours and then analyze their language. The second of the two projects is what got the attention of the Anthropology Department though.

The students were told to talk to someone in their major, a professor or professional, and come up with their 15 words or jargon, words that will relate specifically to a certain topic or field; the meaning of words may change depending on what topic is being discussed. The students were than asked to come up with a creative way to display the words and their meanings. Bartoschesky was very happy with the final result of the projects.

“I held the same expectations for these students as I did of the honors students that I teach, and they totally impressed me.”

After looking at the projects it’s easy to see why the department was so impressed with the class. One art student decorated a paint bucket and then put her field’s jargon inside of it. An English student incorporated her jargon into a fairytale story and made a book.

The students seemed to really enjoy working on the Academic Jargon assignment. They all agreed that it was much better than writing a paper or taking a test, and they actually walked away with useful information.

Sophomore Psychology major Chris Limbaugh said, “I liked this assignment better than taking a test because if students are motivated and ambitious and are being self taught, they will learn much more than just memorizing a bunch of facts for a multiple choice test that is going to be forgotten as soon as the exam is over.”

Kristi Jennings, an English major, made a composition book. She wrote two papers, and then she and a professor edited them together. She used the editing terms as her jargon. Jennings thought the assignment was very helpful in learning more about her own field. She was able to learn terms that she’ll need to know for future classes and jobs.

Many other students agreed with Jennings about how beneficial this assignment was and how interesting it was to see how words can have very different meanings when used in different settings.

Film major Elizabeth Wacker presented her jargon on a film slate. She was very surprised to find how many different meanings the word “slate” can have, and how confusing film jargon can be to people outside of the field.

Justin Bashaw chose to visit Chase Bank and learn about the finance jargon from one of their employees. They even let him have a copy of their letterhead so he could write up a bank statement using the new terms he had learned.

The Academic Jargon assignment was deemed a success by students and teacher alike. Students were able to talk to people in their fields and become acquainted with jargon that will help them in the future. Most importantly Bartoschesky was happy with the final projects and glad that the students were able to learn hands on about language in their fields.

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