Teaching Greek

James Crossley crossleyjames at hotmail.com
Thu Mar 2 08:06:12 EST 2000


To pick up on a few points raised:
I am a PhD student who has studied Greek for about 4 years and has taught 
elementary biblical Greek to first year University students.  The module 
here in Nottingham is in fact run by a Professor (although I have heard that 
junior lecturers do usually get given Greek in the UK) but I have been given 
certain lessons within this module. This has given me valuable experience in 
teaching because it is very different from teaching a 'standard' subject 
e.g. 'Life & Teaching of Jesus'.  This is also beneficial for first year 
undergratuates because they are much more prepared to ask me very basic 
grammatical questions  than they would an established lecturer (rightly or 
wrongly,  most students in the UK no longer have a strong working knowledge 
of English grammar).  I would say that teaching elementary Greek can be done 
if the standard grammar is known inside out by the lecturer.  Beyond that  
it is very difficult to tell.  I have found out,  obviously perhaps,  that 
my knowledge of Greek has improved beyond what a basic text book could ever 
provide through close textual work which is done alone. Also other languages 
such as Hebrew and particularly Aramaic have highlighted many different 
points concerning Greek such as bilingualism and interference in Greek 
translation. When,  or should,  this be taught? What should be taught after 
elementary Greek? The same questions,  of course, apply to other aspects of 
Greek that reflect a researcher's interests.

James Crossley,
Dept.  of Theology,
University of Nottingham,
U.K.
crossleyjames at hotmail.com
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