[B-Greek] Funk and 'monitors'
Randall Buth
randallbuth at gmail.com
Thu Jun 7 09:08:32 EDT 2007
john egrapsen
<just some idle musings to go along with Jonathon's comments.
For universities and seminaries to change the way they teach Greek and
Hebrew (and Latin), there needs to be an incentive.
If there is some reasonable expectation that the efficiency of
instruction will improve dramatically; for instance, if at the end of
two years of the "Buth" system, a student can be expected to be able
to read at the level of a student at the third or even fourth
year-then there is something worthwhile having.
Also, if there is a reasonable expectation that the effectiveness will
improve dramatically; for instance, if say at the end those three or
four years 40% or 50% of the students in a traditional system are able
to read the GNT without the need of a commentary or a grammar and only
occasionally the need for a dictionary is required, but, with the
"Buth" system that rate can be expected to be increased to 65% or
70%-then there is something worthwhile having.
The second item is cost. If it can reasonably be expected that
present staff can be trained in the new methodology so that operating
cost are not increased and if it can reasonably be expected that the
staff can be brought up to the required level of fluency with
relatively minor costs, then there will be a reasonable expectation of
return on investment.
If a business model and marketing model were developed with these in
mind, then there may be a reasonable expectation that Universities and
seminaries will adopt the "Buth" system.
John Sanders>
John, would you like to sign on as a business manager? You have
grasped several key points. A different methodology can be
tested/viewed at several shared points, and make contributions there,
even though it is developing other dimensions as well. Much of this
will be relfected in improved percentages.
Also, the differences in methods become more visible as more time is
involved. the training of teachers is a big concern and from time to
time I have floated the idea that someone get a grant for teacher
seminars where a dozen or so teachers (and potential teachers) come
together for 3-4 weeks and speak only Greek and learn and work on
immersion teaching techniques in Greek. Very doable. But needs proper
backing. I don't suppose the Chinese government will fund this and the
NorthAmerican agencies, e.g., Wabash/Lilly need a NorthAmerican core
of teachers to set up the grant.
Randall
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη πληθυνθείη
שלום לכם וברכות
ybitan at mscc.huji.ac.il
randallbuth at gmail.com
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