Making sure that education is as accessible to everyone as possible has always been a topic of discussion. While students need to express interest and engagement with the subject of their education, the materials themselves need to be accessible. Using plain language in education can help onboard more students, retain their attention, and lead to them successfully utilizing the knowledge they gained in formal education.
Plain language is important and should never be mistaken for simplification or minimization of educational materials. Instead, plain language should be used to explain terms, concepts, and theories “plainly”, without overly-complex sentence structures or vocabulary. What exactly is the role of plain language in education, whether it be English or another language entirely?
An Argument Against “Dumbing Down”
A major point of discussion regarding the introduction of plain language into education relates to the apparent necessity of “academic” language. Mainly, many sciences and fields simply require complex terminology and verbiage for them to function as they did so far. However, this doesn’t apply to all sciences, and many can be made more approachable.
Introducing plain language into education doesn’t dumb down or devalue anything – it simply makes the future of education more approachable to more people. With more academics working on common issues, studies, and research, we can see far better and rapid results become published. This is nigh impossible if the initial barrier for entry into education is too unattainable for many students who, despite their interests, cannot overcome the complex verbiage and terminology present in their professions.
Expanded Education Accessibility
The foremost reason why plain language should find its way into education is due to student mobility. Given how commute and migrations are now easier than ever, millions of students go abroad for academic degrees. Many yet struggle with integrating themselves into the local society, not to mention academia.
By introducing a plainer, more approachable, and everyday language into education, that problem would be mitigated. In turn, we’d see more students studying abroad, expanding their knowledge, and contributing to their respective fields despite initial language barriers.
Erica Sunarjo, chief editor, and writing manager at SupremeDissertations had this to say on the topic: “The presence of plain language in academic studies would allow international student mobility. It would directly contribute to the creation of a cosmopolitan academic world, one where academics worldwide can collaborate as equals.”
Steps Toward a Plainer Language in Education
It’s difficult to decide how exactly the introduction of plain language into education could take place. After all, the process needs to be graduate, calculated, and with a meaningful goal in mind. Certain steps can indeed be taken to make the notion of plain language more appealing to decision-makers in academia, including but not limited to:
- Structuring educational materials in logical, chronological orders across all sciences and studies
- Utilizing active voice to explain terms, concepts, and phenomena to students in writing
- Using familiar, everyday language instead of niche terms and phrases in writing
- Making dictionary notes and annotations commonplace in printed education materials
- Testing and revising the above-mentioned steps with controlled focus groups periodically
The best way forward for plain language in education would be to run a pilot program on a focused group of students or an academic institution. Those in charge of proposing and implementing radical changes in education would need proof of concept to approve any such changes on a larger scale. This path would also prove the hypothesis of plain language and ensure that no arguments can be made against it if it proves how valuable it can be first-hand.
Is Plain Language in Academia an Improbability?
For plain language to become introduced into formal education, a lot of things need to happen and align. Government-level lawmakers and academic professionals need to recognize the value of plain language as a means to make education more accessible to more academics.
Moreover, international student mobility would experience an uptick, leading to far more international students applying for graduate and post-graduate programs abroad. This is not to say that academia should be simplified to the point of it losing its value.
It can however be made friendlier and more understandable even to those with no direct stake in any one academic field. As education as a whole becomes more accessible worldwide, time will tell how and in what manner plain language will find its way into it.
Bio: Nicole Garrison is a professional writer with extensive experience in working on academic publications as an editor at TrustMyPaper. Her expertise consists of various writing formats suited to academia, from essays and case studies to term papers and presentations. Nicole spends most of her free time learning how to be a better writer and how to build upon her knowledge as best as possible.