[B-Greek] Best Practices for Teaching/Learning Greek

John Sanders john.franklin.sanders at gmail.com
Wed Jun 2 00:49:24 EDT 2010


On Wed, Jun 2, 2010 at 3:28 AM, Mark Lightman <lightmanmark at yahoo.com>wrote:

>
>
> Hi, John,
>
> What are some specific things that you would recommend a Greek self-study
> student do
> which are in accordance with modern learning theory?
>
> Mark L
>
>
> FWSFOROS MARKOS
>
> my dear friend FWSFOROS MARKOS,
>

Before I attempt to answer your question, I would suggest that there are
those who are professional teachers, either active or retired, that are
members of the list that should be far more acquainted with modern learning
theory than I.  It would be they who should answer your question.  Rather
than answer your question directly, let me identify those practices which
either I have used or use or have seen used successfully.  It is that which
is practiced rather than that which is thought about that I would be more
interested in discussing.

To summarize what modern practices are  (that is, what I have seen is) that
it eschews grammar and linguistics and inserts practice drills using
hearing, speaking, reading, and writing  instead.  It has a long history,
but Berlitz popularized it, what, perhaps a century ago.  Pimsleur used a
few techniques that has some evidence of being very efficient, and he
commercialized these techniques perhaps 50 years ago.  Suzhou University has
excellent Chinese language programs for foreigners, also using various
"moerdern techniques".

Steve Runge has brought a new book on linguistic concepts in Greek.  An
excellent book, very useful.  But you will not become fluent in Greek
reading it.  Ah, then why, you  may ask, do you write that it is excellent
and useful?  A textbook writer or teacher can use it productively to make a
teaching plan; a student can use it productively to make an
effective learning plan.  An effective learning plan does not use grammar or
linguistic terms, it uses drills and exercies.

I will take the liberty of using you as an example; forgive me if I offend
you, no offense is intended.  Your skill in Greek exceeds my by far.  I am
very impressed with your ability in the language.  But, and this is a
serious but, you make far too often simple errors.  Childish errors.  No,
that is not correct, even a child at that time would not make these errors.
You are making "foreigner" errors.  For instance, you too often do not
associate the correct form in one word class with the form in another word
class; i.e., feminine nouns may be associated with participles using the
masculine ending.  If you have identified a problem, then your learning plan
should develop a series of drills that can correct this error.  That is,
your response should be automatic, without any thinking at all to what form
goes with what form.

Dr. Buth gives examplars in his course material.  You have mentioned, I
believe, that you have access to this material.  This is not developing
skill in speaking or writing, it is developing skill in associating one form
with another.  So you go to your computer, record verbally a noun and an
assoicated adjective or participle as the exemplar,  then record a list of
other nouns.  These lists then can be MP3ed and downloaded to whatever
device you use to listen to music and such.  The list can be made up of only
nouns in one gender, or the list can be mixed.  I would recommend using many
lists, both gender specific and gender mixed.  For adjectives I use EIS,
MIA, EN and PAS, PASA, PAN, and a couple of others randomly selected.  You
can also use a program such as "Anki", a flashcard program, or some other
program that can give a series of words whereby you write out the "answer".
These drills should be timed.  That is, the program should have a limited
time for you to respond.  The object is to get you to answer quickly,
without thinking but responding instinctively.

The setup time is extensive and does not count toward your goal of fluency.
So, you need to do the drills constantly, over and over, hour after hour.
When I was young I recall that my brother and I would go outside and catch a
softball, hour after hour.  We used no gloves, catching first with our right
hand and throwing it back with our left hand, then catching the ball in our
left hand and throwing it back with our right hand.  Hour after hour we did
that, not thinking it was tedious at all, because we wished to gain
"fluency".  But I had no such interest in basket ball, dribbling was just
tedious.  Those who wish to gain "fluency:, doing drills will not be
tedious, but it will be a lot of work.

To recap, I would recommend using drills based on hearing, speaking,
reading, and writing.  Where possible, I would put a timer on the drills.
The object is to develop intuitive responses.  After one has developed
"fluency", usually measured as a "near instantaneous" comprehension to what
is said or written (for "dead languages", what is written), which may take
anyway from six months to a year or more, depending on the amount of time
available to the student), then the student can go where ever he wishes,
grammar, linguistics, literature, rhetoric, etc.

Note:  I have been accused of being insenstive to gender in my writing.  I
attempt not to do so.  But I attach myself to an "old school"; that is, I
consider the third person singlular pronoun "he, his, him" to be gender
neutral unless specified otherwise by context.  The pronoun "she, her" is
not gender neutral.  Therefore, if the antecent is unspecified, I use "he,
his, him".

-- 
John Sanders
Suzhou, China



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