[B-Greek] Fwd: Porter Beginning Greek Book

vunzndi at vfemail.net vunzndi at vfemail.net
Mon Aug 3 10:05:07 EDT 2009


Quoting "John Sanders" <john.franklin.sanders at gmail.com>:


>
> Dr. Buth has one other goal that is sometimes conflated with SLA, that is
> using classical or koine Greek as a second language.  Fluency is required
> for that goal (a noble goal in itself), but one acquiring fluency is not
> required  to use Greek as a second language.  China is good example of
> that.  Although there are many Chinese who have acquired fluency in English,
> there are many more who cannot speak fluently, but they can read incredably
> well.  And that is what SLA is suppose to do, help a student acquire that
> proficiency quickly enough so that they can now, on their own, begin to read
> comfortably.  And by reading more and more gain even greater fluency.
>

This of course illustrates the are a number of aspects to knowing a language:-

1 Passive:-

    1.1) Able to read aloud a text
    1.2) Able to read and understand a text
    1.3) Able to listen and understand

2 Active:-
    1.1) Able to write a language
    1.2) Able to speak a language

3 Other:-
     3.1) Able to analyze the grammar of a text
     3.2) Able to translate

One becomes good at what one practices, if one only reads one may  
internalize reading but not be able to speak. The number of hours  
makes a difference, a university graduate in China frequently has  
spent over 5,000 hours learning English.

Spend 4 hours a day working on any language and internalization can  
start to take place, though beware "internalized" is not the same as  
"correct", people acquiring a second language often have an  
interlanguage - which has features of both the second language and the  
mother language, furthermore many never totally get past this phase.

Regards
John K

>
> --
> John Sanders
> Suzhou, China
> ---
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