[B-Greek] learning vocab and language

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Thu Mar 13 06:57:41 EDT 2008


This was originally posted in a format rather prodigal of bandwidth.  
Here it is in plain-text.

Forwarded for: "Jeffrey T. Requadt" <jeffreyrequadt_list at hotmail.com>
Date: March 12, 2008 11:36:33 PM EDT
To: <b-greek at lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: learning vocab and language


I was at a professional development session today (public educators  
know what I’m talking about), and the focus was vocab learning/ 
retention, especially in the context of testing. The presenter said  
that to use comfortable with a word, one must have used it from 6 to  
18 times in context. I think a huge reason so many of us have such a  
hard time learning the vocab of any genre of Greek (or any other  
language) is that we don’t actually USE it ourselves… we just read it  
and try to remember what it means. We don’t write with it.  
Additionally, we don’t SPEAK it… again, the advantage to doing  
something like what Randall Buth does (I assume, since I haven’t done  
it), since that would involve speaking, listening, reading, and  
writing. And of course, the more natural the word/phrase sounds (by  
which I mean, the way it is used naturally by native speakers), and  
less contrived to fit a certain pronunciation that we think it should  
sound like, the more our brain will accept it and retain it. The  
professor also reminded us that children learn vocab better when they  
learn ONE word a day, rather than 10-15 for a week, because then they  
learn more about the word and can focus more on that. And when it  
comes to dictionary/lexicon usage, of course I would expect even the  
most proficient English writers to use something like the OED when  
they’re looking for just the right word. There’s a difference between  
having a large vocab (i.e., quantity of words) and knowing the  
connotations (or is it denotations?) and shades of meaning and  
semantic ranges of all the words in one’s vocabulary. That’s why  
people write dictionaries, so no one has to have it all in one brain.  
On the other hand, neither do we want to be always looking up words  
every time we get stuck. We want to be able to use other strategies,  
like thinking about what you already know, visualizing as you go  
along, etc. Isn’t the real purpose of reading to understand what  
you’re reading? When I’m reading an English magazine, newspaper, or  
journal, and I come across a word, the meaning of which I’m not  
exactly sure, I don’t usually stop, go get a dictionary, and look it  
up. I pause for a quick second to try to figure it out, mostly from  
the context, and if I think I understand the meaning of what I’m  
reading (even without that one word’s meaning), I move on. If I’m  
really, really confused, and I know I need to understand that word to  
understand what I’m reading, and I’m motivated to make sure I’m  
understanding it, I will find out for sure what the word means in that  
context. But only if I really, really, have to. I can’t even remember  
the last time I had to look up a word from something I was reading  
casually. I think most people on this list would acknowledge that they  
do the same thing in their native tongue if they really reflect on it.  
But this works largely because I have the context of many years of  
using the language already in my brain, whereas that’s not the case  
when I read Greek.
We don’t expect our (in America) immigrant children to become  
proficient in English in one year (although in Arizona we’re trying to  
change that... or else… sigh), so why should we expect grown-ups  
(e.g., ourselves) to learn Classical or Koine Greek in such a short  
time?
Okay, I’ve run through my little tirade/observations now.

Jeffrey T. Requadt
Dietz Elementary
(520) 731-4000

"IATBILA: I'm A Teacher Because I Like Acronyms." ~ Jeff Requadt


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