[B-Greek] A question to Dr. Buth and his school's teaching methodology
Kyle Clark
kyle.mi.clark at gmail.com
Mon Mar 30 17:07:31 EDT 2009
Χαιρε (CHAIRE) Dr. Buth,
Speaking of communicating in Greek, one thing I struggle with is that I
don't know how to say the usual conversation phrases such as "How are you?"
"I am well" and "How is it going?" and the way I typically describe things
in my environment is by color but I can't seem to find anywhere that goes
into how to describe color in Greek. It almost seems as though if I do not
progress beyond these stages I can't go farther (I would place numbers as
also foundational but I am pretty solid with those and there are many
sources for that).
Kyle Clark
On Mon, Mar 30, 2009 at 7:41 AM, Randall Buth <randallbuth at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Sat, Mar 28, 2009 at 1:16 AM, Eddie Mishoe <edmishoe at yahoo.com> wrote:
> >
> > Dr. Buth:
> >
> > You seem to emphasize a lot of verbal, out loud learning of Greek, which
> leads me to ask how your students are to continue their studies once they
> return home, away from other "speakers" who employ your method? I certainly
> am not criticizing the oral teaching method, it just seems to me that once
> your students return home, they return to the reading/researching of the
> (dead) biblical text, and other Greek texts. Do you instruct these students
> to read and learn vocabulary "out loud, orally" when they are back in
> isolation in their studies?
> >
> > Eddie Mishoe
> > Pastor
>
> shalom Eddie,
>
> As always, good questions often involve a complex interaction of
> factors that makes quick, easy responses difficult. But I'll try.
>
> I guess first, it's important to underline that the bigger question is
> 'how do humans most efficiently learn languages?'. The paradoxical
> quick answer is "by using a language". The fastest and only guaranteed
> method of learning a language is by using a language.
>
> Aural-oral pedagogy develops out of that because spoken communication
> ends up taking place as rapidly as people can speak and forces
> communicators to process a language at these speeds. And aural-oral is
> known to work in first languages, and it isn't limited by potential
> dyslexia (there is no corresponding "dysaudia"). Aural-oral practice
> develops processes in brains that function faster than one can think
> about them. Such rapid communicative skills take considerable time to
> develop, and we've mentioned figures like 2000, 3000, and 5000 hours
> on this list. Your question ultimately becomes "how does one work
> towards those 2000+ hours?"
>
> Before answering, let me add another paradox. Reading can contribute
> towards the high skills mentioned above, but it only seems to do so
> when it is built on a fluent core usage of the language. That is, if a
> person can rapidly communicate with a basic core of a language,
> reading will allow the language skills to grow and mature into the
> full language. On the other hand, reading only, without a
> communicative fluent core, will not lead to that mature fluency and
> control of the language. There is ample testimony to the truth of this
> last statement by both Hebraists and Grecists who have spent 20+ years
> in the field if they have not had a spoken, rapid language use
> accompany them throughout their years. Several of my friends here in
> Israel have an additional personal perspective. They can compare
> Hebrew use and functionality with Greek when evaluating all of these
> questions. We all agree that there is a major piece of a language
> missing when one cannot rapidly process a language at communication
> speeds. Even when reading one does not process the language 'from
> within' if one does not have that rapid-internalized core and the
> ability to think with and within the language.
>
> So how does one continue, assuming that they have started to build an
> aural-oral core?
> a. they speak with a friend who is also learning/using the language. A
> husband wife team is also valuable for this. As I say often, "language
> is a team sport". (NAI, H GYNH MOY [H HDH OMILEI TH EBRAIKH] ηρξατο
> HRKSATO MAQEIN THN ELLHNIKHN GLWSSAN PRO ETOYS ENOS KAI NYN DYNAMEQA
> OMILEIN PERI PRAGMATWN APLWN EN ELLHNIKH. OTE EXOMEN SYNANTHSEIS META
> FILOIS EN AIS LALOYMEN MONON EN ELLHNIKH AYTH ERXETAI KAI KOLLATAI
> TOIS FILOIS.)
> b. listening to materials is good, and these should include some at
> something of a natural conversational pace. It is important that these
> listenings be/become understandable. It does no good to listen without
> understanding, though by understanding I am not talking about
> consciously and rapidly labelling words (parsing), I mean following
> and picturing what is being said according to the language being used
> as it is being used. We have a growing supply of audio recordings in
> Koine Greek and should have John and 1John with PDFs available for
> general distribution in about two weeks. (I must finish prooflistening
> and send it to the US for easiest distribution.)
> c. speaking to oneself while reading is good, e.g. rephrasing whatever
> one has just read, summarizing or putting into a different time
> context or different person (1st person to 3rd or vice versa) can be
> helpful.
> d. a person can pray or take moments to try to describe whatever is
> going on around them. This usually results in quickly pointing out
> items that need work and makes those items easier to remember when
> encountered and learned.
> e. begin to use the language. this is simply a reprise of 'a' in this
> list and needs to be repeated because there are many people out there
> who would like to do this if given half a chance. How does one develop
> excellent conditioning and endurance? by starting an exercise program.
> It even helps to find some interesting material to read and discuss
> with friends.
> In particular, pray for the leadership of those planning Koine Greek
> programs and those involved in academic fora like SBL and ETS. The
> situation needs to change and it takes a certain amount of courage to
> step out in a direction that most people are trying to pretend doesn't
> matter.
>
> ERRWSO
> IWANHS
> (isn't it nice to feel properly greeted by ERRWSO?
> SY ERRWSAI? KAGW ERRWMAI.
> That feeling of wellbeing comes from using 100 times in real
> communication.)
>
> --
> Randall Buth, PhD
> www.biblicalulpan.org
> randallbuth at gmail.com
> Biblical Language Center
> Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life
> ---
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