“You give me blood and I give you independence!”, “I have a dream speech”, “Ahimsa”, “Satyagrah” “Quit India” “Vibrant Gujarat!” “Nirmal Gujarat!” ….. What happens when you listen to these words? They carry the name of the person who has expressed them. That is the influence and the power of the words. Though small, and many a time overlooked, words have created history in the world. They have become identification of the person may he be Subhashchandra Bose, Martin Luther King Jr., Mahatma Gandhiji or Mr. NarendraModi. We know people by the words they use. In the evolutions of mankind, words have remained prominent factor in socio-cultural context.

Words are the tools to think, to express feelings and ideas and to know the surrounding world. Words of famous people and holy books have changed people’s perception about the universe, morality, good and evil and so on. Words also make person smile or sometimes moves to tears.

Words are also important to create strong foundation of learning. Reading comprehension and vocabulary arer strongly correlated. Lack of word-knowledge leads to partial comprehension in reading of the text. Limited vocabulary prevents students to understand text book also. See Figure 1 below. On the other hand sound knowledge of vocabulary leads to excellent academic accomplishments.

Assistant Professor, English & Business Communication, SEMCOM