[B-Greek] A Greek Pedagogical Question
R Yochanan Bitan Buth
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
Thu Jul 21 16:56:49 EDT 2005
Eipen Mitch
>Was it not Dr. Buth who advised us to begin with
>STRUCTURE first?
Some of the discussions are discussing different skills. When
analyzing and trying to explain why or what a structure may be, then
one would usually start by defining the structure on its own terms
rather than a foreign semantic grid. Reference grammars, linguistic
theories, and histories and excellent for this sort of thing.
But learning and thinking in a language is a different process. Adult
speakers and learners of a language usually do both to some degree,
though linguists can attest that much of what speakers say 'about' a
language is not often valid when it comes to explanation. The bizarre
side appears when an adult language user can give either a theoretical
or a popular explanation about a structure but cannot fluently use it
or understand it when hearing it at normal conversational speeds. I
don't advocate analyzing a structure as a doorway into fluency.
When a person speaks a language they are usually not concious of which
structures they are using until someone stops them and asks a
question: is AMPELOS arsenikon h qhliakon (masculine or feminine)?
Then a person must stop and say to themselves something like
AMPELOS KALH KAI FEROUSA KARPON KAI POIOUSA STAFULAS,
-ee-, DOKEI MOI OTI QHLIKON ESTIN TO GENOS THS AMPELOU.
(while adding the accent marks in the writing system is very much a
pure analytical process, hopefully based on correctly pronounced
syllables. Corrections welcomed.)
A'MPELOS KALH` KAI` FE'ROUSA KARPO`N KAI` POIOU~SA STAFULA'S,
-ee-, DOKEI~ MOI O'TI QHLIKO'N ESTIN TO` GE'NOS TH~S AMPE'LOU.
KALH`N NU'XTA
Randall Buth, PhD
Director, Biblical Language Center
www.biblicalulpan.org
and Director, Biblical Studies in Israel
Hebrew University, Rothberg International School
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
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