One of the reasons why students might find it difficult to learn science is because of the sheer number of new vocabulary words they must learn to read, write, and spell correctly. This is particularly true for Russian, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese students, for example, but also for students who speak Arabic or Hindi, because their native languages are not Romance (i.e., Latin-derived) languages. English, German, and Dutch students have similar difficulties, although less so because their West Germanic languages have historically absorbed and incorporated many Greek and Latin terms.

One way to try and minimize this immense difficulty is to learn the Greek and Latin roots that constitute so much of scientific discourse. By learning many of the most frequently used Greek and Latin prefixes and suffixes, students may eventually find scientific language easier to understand.