ABSTRACT
In any typical group of science students there will be some who find themselves in difficulty – who find the disciplines of physics, or biology, or mathematics forbidding and obscure. To such students, these subjects appear decidedly unfriendly. When their teacher tries to diagnose the problems the students are having, it is usually not long before the discussion begins to focus on language. Scientific texts are found to be difficult to read; and this is said to be because they are written in ‘scientific language’, a ‘jargon’ which has the effect of making the learner feel excluded and alienated from the subject-matter.
