[B-Greek] Greek To Me

mrt mrt at hisurfer.net
Fri Jan 9 11:14:50 EST 2004


John Byron wrote:
>Greetings, I am new to the list and I have been teaching Greek for the last
few
years.  I thought that I might recommend an approach I used with my students
this year, which has been very successful. The 'Greek to Me' system by
Story and Story is an introductory grammar that is both accessible and
fun. Not only do the various mnemonic device help many student it also
helps relieve the tension often felt when trying to learn new material.
(Story also has a set of vocabulary flash cards and an interactive CD).

A particular reason I mention all of this is due to a student I had
this year who was attempting Greek for the third time. The results have
not only been encouraging to me but have lifted his self-esteem. I
wonder if anyone else out there uses this system and could share any
tips they may have found when using it?
____________

CAIRE John,
I am glad that you brought this topic up because I had recently written the
following and then decided not to post it, but now your thread gives me the
green light.  Right now I suppose I don't have any "tips" except to also get
the vocab. cards w. the grammar.  And I do not know anything about Lyle
Story's interactive CD on this.  But it appears help with regard to
word-pronunciation and all the multimedia bells and whistles that come with
that... yada yada yada.

'Greek to Me' may not be for everyone esp. for those settled with their
textbook or those who have mastered their primary 1st year grammar book.
But for those who particularly find languages difficult I highly recommend
considering the Greek Memory System by Dr. J. Lyle Story
http://home.regent.edu/lylesto/memsystem.html
It seems to promote accelerated learning that abandons the traditional
learning styles by rote memorization of paradigms and vocab.

As a personal note, during collage this was my textbook.  I think it's an
excellent system that hones in on how one best memorizes.  And being a tutor
for Grk. I found that all the students appreciated the textbook and
vocabulary cards though we all thought (at many times) the cartoons were
silly.  But that's the very thing that helped us learn it!  :-)  All's I can
say is that I was very appreciative of Dr. Dale Wheeler's choice of
textbooks. Through his instruction and methods he epitomized the word
teacher.

Continuing on, I also had opportunity to teach 3-5 graders Greek.  At first
I wondered if I could teach Grk. to kids since the only Greek I knew was via
collage level teaching.  But through adaptation of Story's grammar 'Greek to
Me' I attempted the class.  I was soon happy to find that they took well to
the textbook and even joked about the cartoons themselves. Now my class
wasn't as often as in collage (4 or 5 days a week) so by my estimation they
still could learn as fast as the collage level students, though some grammar
may need to be explained in more detail.
Now I have rambled on about these things so that no one will think that it
is too simplistic or cartoonish.  I can go on but the point is... is that it
works.  And I think by its interesting/motivating style it further promotes
less dropouts as well as getting the student at reading Greek EUQUS (anon).
Thus I give it high praise and especially commend it to anyone beginning to
learn Greek, young or old, and to their teachers as well.

http://home.regent.edu/lylesto/

Michael Tarver
Oregon, USA
<'\\><  laus Deo




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