Why teach Vocabulary In Science Classes?

Directions:  Read the paragraph below.  How much do you understand?

    Hydrolysis of proteins with acid or base yields a mixture of the different amino acids.  Although hydrolysis of naturally occurring proteins may yield as many as 22 different amino acids, the amino acids have an important structural feature in common:  With the exception of glycine (whose molecules are achiral), almost all naturally occuring amino acids have the L configuration at the alpha carbon.  That is, they have the same relative configuration as L-glyceraldehyde.

T.W. Graham Solomans. Orangic Chemistrypg. John Wiley& sons, Inc. New York.

    Chances are if you do not have any science background like the students we teach you would have a hard time understanding what the paragraph above was about.  One of the most important things a teacher at any level can teach is the language (vocabulary) of the content they teach.  Without it, students can not have any true understanding of the course material.  Not many language teachers would teach their subjects without emphasizing the vocabulary.  The same should be true about content area teachers.  Without learning vocabulary students can not have any true science thoughts.  If students do not understand the vocabulary then the content is meaningless.