The present study examines university students' perceptions of learning academic terminology and using specialised language, and discusses the consequences of their vision. The aim is to elucidate the relationship between academic culture, academic education and the construction of knowledge in higher education. The fields of meaning and the level of difficulty entailed in understanding technical or specialised content in the context of our students (L2) are associated with the current context and widespread use of technological devices. The lack of command of fields of meaning not only impedes the construction of new theoretical models, but also increasingly differentiates between groups, widening the gap between students who possess more specialised codes and those who do not.