Usually a technical term used by a classroom professor or found in a text defines a concept more precisely than a corresponding common word. For instance, a biology teacher may refer to a dog as Canis familiaris. The point of this discussion is not biological classification, but to illustrate how a technical term encodes more specific information than its common-word equivalent. Some technical terms, of course, do not even have a close equivalent in common usage. Vocabulary words used in a college course may have a different meaning from a common usage.
All positions are statuses in the sociological sense.
Do not ignore unfamiliar words. If these words occur during the lecture, raise your hand and ask what they mean. If they are in a book, newspaper, or magazine, look them up in a dictionary or glossary. Work on general vocabulary building. A faster way of building vocabulary is by purchasing one of the numerous vocabulary-building books which are available in any large bookstore.