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Over the last few years I’ve had an uncomfortable sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain …
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Must a person speak a language to understand it?
This is an important question to ask for instructors of ancient languages who want to move toward communicative approaches to language instruction, and the answer to this question is: no. This doesn’t necessarily rule out that we should use communication in ancient language instruction (though for this and a number of other reasons I wouldn’t),…
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Reading a second language will never be like reading a first language
This post is in partial reply to one written by Daniel Streett. I should start off by saying that I applaud the efforts of all those attempting to make biblical language instruction better and to train better interpreters of the bible. Changes in biblical language instruction still have a long way to go and have…
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Learn a foreign language, you sinners (Bonus: dissertation topic for somebody)
I’m kidding about the title of this post. Mostly. This month’s Scientific American: Mind* has a fascinating article by Catherine Caldwell-Harris about moral reasoning in a native language versus a second or foreign language. You need a subscription to read the whole thing, but fortunately for those without a subscription this article seems like a…
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Suicide: Biology, Sociology and Religion
I have formally studied both psychology and biblical studies, which has entailed somewhat the study of religion in general. Over the last several days I’ve seen a considerable amount of discussion of suicide related to both psychology and religion, some of which has been heplful and some not with some of the unhelpful discussion being…