[B-Greek] Re: Different approach to learn Greek

WarrenFulton at telering.at WarrenFulton at telering.at
Wed Jan 21 15:01:06 EST 2004


Quoting bertdehaan at gosympatico.ca:
> I read recently about a strategy to learn Greek that uses the
> sentence as basis for learning languages rather than
> individual words. It requires one to memorize sections of
> text, and then start substituting words with others of a
> different tense or case. Once these become familiar, do some
> more substituting, etc.

What you have described is a classic substitition drill, which, like 
all drills, can be useful for quickly reviewing paradigms, but can 
easily degenerate into mechanical recitation a la amo, amas, amat. 
The trick is to get the students to make substitutions while keeping 
them focused on the meaning of what they are saying and a context.

This can best be accomplished by running the drill as a dialogue.

In dialogue mode, it\'s not necessary to have anyone memorize the base 
sentence (the starting point for your transformations). You can 
simply feed it in questions:

(building toward Mark 1:5)
EPOREUQH PASA hH IOUDAIA PROS TON IWANNHN;
EPOREUQHSAN KAI PANTES hOI hIEROSOLUMITAI PROS AUTON;
TINES EPOREUQHSAN PROS AUTON;
DIA TI EPOREUQHSAN PROS AUTON;
POU EBAPTISQHSAN PANTES hOI IOUDAIOI/hIEROSOLUMITAI;
hUPO TINOS EBAPTISQHSAN;

Once the base sentence is established, you can start playing around 
with substitutions. Note that every sentence constituent is marked by 
a question. 

TINES;           --hH IOUDAIA CWRA KAI hOI hIEROSOLUMITAI 
TI EPOIHSAN;     --EPOREUQHSAN PROS TON IWANNHN;
DIA TI;          --EPI TO BAPTISMA AUTOU
POU;             --EN TWi IORDANHi POTAMWi
hUPO TINOS;      --UPO IWANNOU

This means you never have to leave question mode. Questions get you 
to the base sentence and questions help you exploit it with 
substitutions.

To exploit the TINES; constituent, ask negative questions (questions 
requiring a no answer). Your substitution elements are all the 
nationalities and political groups: hELLHNES, ZHLOTES, etc.

To exploit the TI EPOIHSAN; constituent, substitute different verbs, 
persons, and numbers.

To exploit the POU; constituent, substitute locations ... ktl

What is fun is multiple-slot substitution. In the above example, your 
dialogue looks like this:

- POU EBAPTIS-...  SU/hUMEIS/hO.../hH.../hOI...;
- EBAPTIS/-QHN/-QH/-QHMEN/-QHSAN EN TWi .../EN THi ...

The first slot or variable is the person. This allows you to repeat 
names, nationalities and, aorist endings. The second slot is the 
answer to POU;

>Do you think that it would be worth the effort or would my time be 
>better spend going through lessons as they are presented in grammars?

Traditional presentation and practice of forms is non-interactive and 
more often than not uncontextualized. Using dialogue practice for 
form substitution is not only more stimulating -- especially if you 
can move the dialogue from teacher-student to student-student -- but 
it also promotes a feeling for the whole Greek sentence.

Warren Fulton
Vienna, Austria



More information about the B-Greek mailing list