[B-Greek] Tips for first-time teaching of NT Greek?
Mark Lightman
lightmanmark at yahoo.com
Sat May 3 23:45:59 EDT 2008
I don't think the pedagogies you choose in teaching
(or learning) Greek matter much. Your students will
learn Greek very well if they are bitten with the Greek]
bug, if they wind up averaging say an hour of Greek a
day for the rest of their lives. If they don't, they won't.
So I think your ultimate job is not to teach forms or
explain imperatival hINA; they will or will not
learn that on their own--"therein the patient must
minister to himself." Your job is to somehow inspire
the students to understand that falling in love with
Greek will make their lives richer in a way nothing else
will. That the life which does not examine the bare dative
in not worth living, as Socrates might say. I have to say
with all due respect that none of my Greek teachers in
school really did this. They were all wonderful, but years later
I realized for the most part they were not passionate about
ME becoming passionate about Greek. They seemed more
interested in letting us all know how smart they were, how
well they knew Greek and in so doing they made Greek seem
harder than it really is. Years later, after keeping my Greek
barely alive as on a ventilator, I was watching a sermon on
TV. by James Kennedy and he said in passing that he tried to
read a little NT Greek everyday. THAT did it for me, somehow,
that inspired me and since then I can count on one hand the
days I have spent without doing some Greek. I don't know how you
can inspire your students thus, but I know that this is much more
important than whether you go with Mounce or Machen or Erasmus
or Buth.
Having said that, I would emphasize early on that the aorist is
the default tense, it is the progressive that is seeking more
attention in form and meaning. I would use Mounces'
Morphology of Biblical Greek (for yourself, not for them)
in explaining principle parts. I would try to teach the root
idea of the cases and emphasize that prepositions further
pinpoint the meanings of the cases more than determining the
meanings themselves. For what it is worth (and it is worth very
little, because people are perversely attached to a given
grammar just because it worked for them; all grammars work
pretty much equally well) I would use Machen over Mounce
because I think his exercises are still unmatched for systematically
leaning all elements of the language. The revised edition is pricey
but no more than Mounces grammar and workbook, although again
Mounce is good and Baugh and Ray Summers and a half dozen others.
As far as being an effective teacher in general, people think that
knowledge of the subject is one of the most important elements of
good teaching. It is not; it is probably the ninth or tenth most important
thing. Knowing Greek well is helpful, but you will be learning along with
the students and that is better. Often, teachers know the subject TOO well
and therefore fail to teach what they need to. The three most important
elements of good teaching are (1) and by far most important, ENTHUSIASM (2)
ORGANIZATION and (3) FAIRNESS, which includes making sure you
make contact with each student to encourage them and leave none behind.
Give tons of encouragement and praise. Remind them that after they learn
the alphabet they know more Greek than 99% of all the Christians that
ever lived and that they will make it if they just stick with.
I thank God that He is giving you this long awaited opportunity and trust that
you will do great!
Mark L.
Kenneth Litwak <javajedi2 at yahoo.com> wrote:
In teh Fall, I"m gong to have the great opportunity
to teach NT Greekj. I've not done that ever before,
even though I've wanted to do so for a long time. The
course is an intensive, 12 units of Greek, the whole
first year, in one quarter. The standard textbook
(though I don't think I have to use it) is Mounce (I
learned using Machen, long before Mounce's book
existed). From looking at Rod Decker's web site, I
got some other ideas about things to potentially also
bring in. However, I would just like to know if
anyone has tips for a first-timer, as this is unlike
any course I've taught before. Conveying information
on, say, Acts, is totally different from teaching the
1 Aorist forms. I've looked around search results
from Google for tips but not found much taht I thought
was useful. Of course, I got way many more hits than I
examined, so theer may be gold out thjere I didn't
look at. Thanks.
Ken Litwak
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