[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
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