When and Where I Found It: I found the word domain this week while I was reading one of the articles assigned by two students for a presentation in my other class [Possible Sentences: Predicting Word Meanings to Teach Content Area Vocabulary (1991) by Stahl and Kapinus].
Meaning: In the article, Stahl & Kapinus (1991) state “it would work equally well with words not necessarily from the same knowledge domain... even if the words were not as closely related to each other as the words we used, the process of relating words to each other should produce similar effects" (p. 42). The authors are discussing students linking words together into sentences. They make the argument that words do not have to be from the same domain to make this a useful exercise for students. From the context used in this article, the word domain means a group of similar items. In this case, the words were the items that were being referred to as being from a specific domain. Webster's online dictionary uses the following as the definition appropriate to this usage: "a sphere of knowledge, influence, or activity".
Stahl, S. A. & Kapinus, B. A. (1991). Possible sentences: Predicting word meanings to teach content area vocabulary. The Reading Teacher, 45(1), pp. 36-43.
Level of Familiarity: I have heard the word domain when referring to the internet, and have always thought of it as a territory. Webster online dictionary confirms this meaning, and adds the above meaning. I am now familiar with it in regard to discussing groupings.
Do I Want to Know This Word Well? Why? I want to know the word domain well because it could be used across all subject areas. While in science domain could indicate a fox's territory, the word domain could describe the function of a grouping of numbers, a subset of vocabulary words in Social Studies or ELA, or the genre of art being discussed in a Visual Arts class. As a teacher, being able to use this word across subject areas will help me focus in on areas of similarities/differences.
Do I Want Others to Know this Word Well? Who and Why? I think teachers and students in the education field should know this word. The word domain is a useful word when discussing and thinking about groupings in any subject area.
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