Teaching aspect via English

Michael Holmes holmic at bethel.edu
Fri Dec 13 10:01:20 EST 2002


I shared the recent postings about teaching a language via English with a 
colleague in my dept. not on the b-greek list, and I am forwarding to you on 
his behalf the following.
Mike Holmes
Bethel College 

++++++++++++++++ 
FROM: Gary Long:

After realizing I often had to teach students English grammar at some point 
along with their study of Semitic languages or Biblical Greek, I decided to 
write something that would help do just that. Hendrickson Publishers liked 
the idea and this past summer _Grammatical Concepts 101 for Biblical Hebrew: 
Learning Biblical Hebrew Grammatical Concepts through English Grammar_ came 
out in time for the fall semester. 

Hendrickson and I are planning a Biblical Greek counterpart to appear in 
time for fall 2004. 

The books tackle things like adjectives, substantives, adverbs, participles, 
gerunds, pronouns, tense, aspect, clause structures, semantics, discourse 
analysis, etc. All the language examples are glossed and translated, and I 
use a heavy dose of visual helps and guides. 

Yes, this is, on one hand, shameless promotion. It is also an echo of the 
frustration of trying to teach the grammar of a "new" language when many 
students have no foundation in the "old." Perhaps(?!?) these works will be 
one more tool to help us with the hurdle. 

Gary A. Long 
Bethel College (MN, USA) 
------- 
Vice President 
Society of Biblical Literature 
Upper Midwest Region 
Email: mailto:gary-long at bethel.edu 

 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Rob Matlack 
To: Biblical Greek 
Sent: Thursday, December 12, 2002 3:01 PM 
Subject: [b-greek] RE: Teaching aspect via English 


When I taught my kids Greek we used "English Grammar for Language Students" 
by Frank 
Braun, University of Michigan distributed by Ulrich's Books, Inc. Ann Arbor, 
MI. When 
my son was at Defense Language Institute he used "'Smart Start Handbook' a 
Crash 
Course in English Grammar." and "DLI's English Grammar for Russian 
Students". I don't 
know if any of their stuff would be available to the civilian world, but as 
he put it 
in response to Carl's e-mail that I sent to him: "Yes Dad that is the way it 
was 
taught in DLI. You have to remember that DLI wants to put out the best as 
fast as they 
can, that is why they do it that way. You know sometimes the military is far 
better 
than the civilian world and this is just an example." 

-----Original Message----- 
From: Carl W. Conrad [mailto:cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu] 
Sent: Tuesday, December 10, 2002 6:48 AM 
To: Biblical Greek 
Cc: Biblical Greek 
Subject: [b-greek] RE: Teaching aspect via English 


At 2:06 AM -0500 12/10/02, Suedaleg at aol.com wrote: 
>Hefin et al: 
> 
>I have been saying for many years, at least since I was in college in the 
>late 70's, that English is being taught completely backwards in our 
schools. 
>Our schools attempt to impose "correct grammar" without correctly teaching 
>what grammar is truly about.  English grammar, or grammar in any language 
for 
>that matter, should be tought so that the student should understand what is 
>being said by the structure and syntax.  This is aspect. 
> 
>I had a roomate in college who was also a classmate in my Greek class.  He 
>could not grasp the concepts of the Greek language beyond the vocabulary. 
>The grammar would not come for him.  When I tried to help him with the 
>concepts I found that he had no understanding of the meaning of English 
>grammar. 
> 
>I think it would be a good idea for the colleges and seminaries to test and 
>offer a "pre-language" English grammar class so that this lack could be 
>addressed before frustrating the student in a foreign grammar. 
> 
>Just two cents from one who is trying to understand clearly. 
>Dale Greenlee 

This is an observation that must, I believe, be seconded by almost any 
teacher of a foreign language (it's certainly been my experience in 
teaching of Greek and Latin, and it was my experience also many years 
earlier when I taught French and German. Considerable time must be spent 
with a class or particularly with those students who don't know enough 
about English grammar to appreciate critical differences between English 
grammar and idiom and the grammar and idiom of the language being learned. 
There used to be some excellent helps entitled "English Grammar for 
Students of..." The only one I can readily find on the net now is 
_English Grammar for Students of Spanish: The Study Guide for Those 
Learning Spanish_. 
-- 

Carl W. Conrad 
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus) 
1989 Grindstaff Road/Burnsville, NC 28714/(828) 675-4243 
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu OR cwconrad at ioa.com 
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/ 

Rob Matlack      united_by_truth at myrealbox.com 
Minneapolis, KS 
"I can only say that I am nothing but a poor sinner, trusting in Christ 
alone for 
salvation"--R. E. Lee 
"It is not our task to secure the triumph of truth, but merely to fight on 
its 
behalf."--Blaise Pascal 
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