[B-Greek] Drilling/ was Re: Greek & Hebrew brush-up tools
W. Fulton
WarrenFulton at telering.at
Fri Feb 27 08:25:02 EST 2004
> Also how do you recommend drilling paradigms?
When you talk of drilling paradigms, it conjures up a picture of soldiers all lined up on the parade grounds, the singulars in the front row, the plurals in perfect formation right behind, on the whole an inspiring display but a waste of resources. The same is true when you marshal your memory resources to parade out LUW, LUEIS, LUEI. It's impressive, and maybe it inspires you with pride, but it's ultimately not the language in action. The pattern you have committed to memory does not belong to the real sentence patterns that make up the language.
The purpose of the paradigm drill is to learn the inflections. The verb is inflected in a pattern that matches (= is in agreement with) various constituents of the sentence. The more links you create in your memory between the verb inflection and the various elements it naturally matches up with, the keener your sense of Greek sentence patterns becomes. Thus, what we want to drill are not abstract paradigms but natural sentence patterns.
The most frequent match-up for verbs is with their subjects. The inflections of finite verbs refer to their subjects. Sentence patterns that include both the expressed personal pronoun and a finite verb tend to emphasize the subject in some way, for example in a contrast or antithesis:
SU OIDAS TA KLITIKA PARADEIGMATA ALL' EGW OUK OIDA AUTA.
Sentences like this can be taken as base sentences for transformation drills. The base sentence contains substitution elements, in this case SU and EGW. Once your student has produced the base sentence, you can prompt transformations by asking about new subjects:
- KAI MARIA; KAI TA TEKNA AUTHS;
- MARIA OIDEN TA PARADEIGMATA ALLA TA TEKNA AUTHS OUK OIDASIN AUTA.
- KAI hHMEIS; KAI hUMEIS;
- hHMEIS OIDAMEN TA PARADEIGMATA ALLA hUMEIS OUK OIDATE AUTA.
Using this technique, you can go through all the perfect inflections of OIDA in contextualized examples instead of the detached formal conjugation scheme. For variation, and to introduce new challenges, you can open up another substitution slot. (See my post on multiple slot substitutions: "Different approach to learn Greek" 21 Jan.)
- OIDES TAS ENTOLAS;
- EGW OIDA TAS ENTOLAS ALLA SU OUK OIDES AUTAS.
And when you have finished with OIDA, you can use the same sentence pattern to practice other verb inflections: ECEIS TAS ENTOLAS; THPEIS AUTAS; POIEIS AUTAS;
Another natural match-up (person and number) is between the verbal inflection and objects qualified by various possessives.
TIMW TON PATERA MOU.
TIMAS TON PATERA SOU.
ktl
These natural linkages can be also built into transformation drills, so that instead of associating TIMW with TIMAS, you learn to associate the verbal inflections (-W, -AS, etc) with the possessive forms they naturally collate with (MOU, SOU, etc). As as added benefit, you actually learn two morphoparadigms in tandem (verb + possessive).
The best transformation "drills" shed their military character altogether and take on the semblance of dialogue.
- KALOS POIMHN EI;
- NAI, GINWSKW TA PROBATA MOU. (base dialogue)
- KALOS POIMHN ESTIN;
- NAI, GINWSKEI TA PROBATA AUTOU. (1st transformation)
- KALOI POIMENES ESTE;
- NAI, GINWSKOMEN TA PROBATA hHMWN. (2nd transformation)
Here you are not only linking GINWSKW and its possessives but also GINWSKW and EIMI. Once you have exhausted this transformation pattern, you can extend it by opening up a new slot: other professions. Then you start having fun.
- KALOS AMPELOURGOS EI;
- NAI, AIPW TA KLHMATA MOU. (drill in all persons and numbers)
- KALOS QERISTHS EI;
- NAI, AMAW TAS CWRAS MOU. (drill in all persons and numbers)
The most natural (and entertaining) way to practice verb paradigms in context is the so-called "three-corner drill." To use it properly, you need three students. Student A asks a question to B about C. Student B doesn't know C that well so s/he has to turn to C and ask directly. B retreives the information from C and reports it back to A. This simulates a natural situation: requesting information, rephrasing the request, retrieving information, forwarding information.
A - PWS LEGETAI (EKEINOS);
B - (to "A":) OUK OIDA. (to "C":) PWS LEGESAI;
C - IAKWBOS LEGOMAI.
B - (to "A":) IAKWBOS LEGETAI.
Note that you have all the singular present forms of LEGOMAI here. To get the plural forms, run the same dialogue with:
PWS LEGONTAI (EKEINOI);
You can run the three-corner drill with any verb, any tense (if you can plug it into a question). This kind of practice covers the same ground and achieves the same goal as rote memorization of paradigms, but it helps students develop a feeling for common speech patterns and prepares the way for active reading.
Warren Fulton
Vienna
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