[B-Greek] Where is Grammar-translation supported?
Carl Conrad
cwconrad2 at mac.com
Thu Apr 7 13:13:53 EDT 2011
Comments below:
On Apr 7, 2011, at 12:53 PM, Randall Buth wrote:
> I visited b-greek today and found a long thread on a frequent topic,
> comparing 'pedagogical grammars'.
> But there was not a word about how to justify such an approach for
> our field of studies.
>
> It wouldn't hurt to ask:
> Are these pedagogies supported through any kind of
> psycholinguistic or pedagogical research? Can they or do they
> lead to internalization of ANY language? I leave these as open
> questions, though some may have read them as rhetorical
> questions.
>
> You are all cordially invited to the Applied Lingiustics for
> Biblical Languages Session at SBL this coming November. It's
> in San Francisco, on the far side for those visiting from the other
> side of the Atlantic. But a tour of Napa, Sonoma, Mendecino, and
> Alexander valleys may enhance your trip.
>
> James Asher, originator of 'Total Physical Response' will be
> discussing "Learning Languages in the 21st Century-Part 1" and
> "Learning Languages in the 21st Century-Part 2" (60 minutes total).
> He has quite a bit to say about tests and experimental data
> on language learning over the past 40 years. One provocative
> piece from his abstracts:
>
> "The noble goal of the 20th century was to acquire a second language.
> The effort was not a stunning success since less than five percent of
> students actually achieved fluency in another language. Given the
> explosion of valuable information in the last decade or two about the
> right hemisphere of the brain, a realistic goal in the 21st century is
> fluency in multiple languages. . . . To understand how the brain works
> in rapid learning of multiple languages at the same time, please read
> my book: Learning Another Language Through Actions"
>
> Let's keep an open mind about where 'the bar may be set' in the
> future and think about ways to prepare the field, that means us, too,
> for the opportunities.
>
> ERRWSQE
>
> Randall Buth
>
> --
> Randall Buth, PhD
> www.biblicallanguagecenter.com
> Biblical Language Center
> Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life
In point of fact, the implicit but unstated desideratum of the query,
I think, was an instrument for self-teaching, without any interaction
with a living speaker or writer -- or teacher or class. What's wanted,
it seems, is a guide to self-instruction, perhaps involving recorded
voices, but including exercises with an answer key. I have known
some students who were pretty good at self-instruction, but not
many. Of course, we offer B-Greek as a forum where questions
about textbooks, pronunciation, lexicology, morphology, syntax,
etc. get not one clear and concise response, but several responses,
and those are often at odds with each other. It is up to the
inquirer to sort through these responses. I think that one of the
better features of some recent pedagogical discussions has been
awareness or even explicit statements about the criteria employed
in deciding between alternatives. I'm happy to see Randall
raise further consideraitons along those lines.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University (Retired)
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