[B-Greek] Finding Verbal Roots (more on rules and paradigms)
Randall Buth
randallbuth at gmail.com
Wed Sep 17 05:15:02 EDT 2008
>>Litwak HRWTHSE
>> ... I need a resource for students
to use or I need to skip the topic. Anyone who teaches Greek in
favor of skipping the topic of verb roots?>>
> lightman APEKRIQH
>The best resource that lists NT verbal roots is probably Mounce's own
Morphology of Biblical Greek. I think introducing the concept of roots and
stems (note Mounce himself is quick to point out the difference) is
very important.
It's one of the things that makes Greek fun. >
As a linguist I think that it is important, or at least fun, to
discuss verbal roots.
But we are talking about language learning. Not about how or why a particular
form is the way that it is. Are people listening? Do Greek teachers
care what second language acquisition studies have to offer?
Teaching a language through morphological rules guarantees that the
students do not progress toward fluency. See below if there is any doubt.
Students will understand WHY "a is A" and "b is B". They may be able to say
"g should be G1 or G2". But they won't be able to think with the language.
Is that what we want? To perpetuate the disaster?
TAXA DOKOYMEN OTI H DIDASKALIA THS ELLHNIKHS EYQHNOYMENH?
Some good news follows a necessary survey of the state of the art.
Disaster? A strong word. OK, let's compare teachers of Greek with teachers of
German or Russian. Do ten or twenty years of contact with the language lead
to fluency or to something else?! Do Russian and German teachers come to
classics and say, "we see your success, show us how you do that?" Or is it
the other way around? Some German and Russian programs succeed at
foreign language acquistion (internalized learning done outside a community
of normal users). I advocate finding successful foreign language acquistion
programs and applying that to Greek. Hebrew, too, for that matter.
I've been on this list for close to a decade off and on. I sense some movement
in a positive direction. Ten years ago 99.5% wouldn't understand how the above
could be applied to Greek. Maybe today it's 98%. Optimists could call that a
400% increase in only ten years! Maybe higher. Can you sense the wave?
(The numbers provided are ficticious, they only represent my feelings from
discussions at places like SBL and this list. There is positive momentum.
In addition, current Greek teachers have a tremendous wealth of information
and background that would help us all in reformatting Greek training. The task
is doable, but only if Greek teachers will roll up their sleeves and
pick up the
task at the BEGINNING. That means not teaching beginning Greek through
roots but through real words and real language use. That's truly the
'old-fashioned way'. It's the way the Greeks and the foreigners did it in
antiquity. It's what Francois Gouin learned about Latin via German. He
explicitly
said so, reasoning that if his 'series method' works for any language today, it
would have worked for any language then.
So yes, skip the 'root' part of your textbook, and keep you peripheral
vision open
for something that will build towards fluency, first your own and then your
students. Fluency produces the best readers in any language.
And roots? You will be able to teach the roots in Greek at a time when it will
not hinder your students and put them on the wrong track. This will arise
from their own interest and will be fun. A piece at a time.
ERRWSQE
IWANHS
--
Randall Buth, PhD
www.biblicalulpan.org
randallbuth at gmail.com
Biblical Language Center
Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life
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