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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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The Limited Usefulness of Semantic Domains for Learning Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary (Part 2)
I should preface this second post on the limited usefulness of semantic domains for learning Biblical Hebrew vocabulary by stating that I did not always think this was the case. In my intermediate Hebrew course, I remember having Landes as the vocabulary text and thinking it was great to see someone finally do something other…
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Finkbeiner and Nicol on Interference
Yesterday I posted a bibliography on the problem of interference when learning semantically related words, which I have updated this morning. However, I know that not everyone will have access to all of those works and that not everyone will have the time to read them all. But, I have found one of the articles…
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The Limited Usefulness of Semantic Domains for Learning Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary (Part 1)
New related post: Interference When Learning Semantically Related Words (A Bibliography) I hope that no one takes this post as too harsh of a critique as I applaud anyone’s effort to make Biblical Hebrew instruction better. I have noticed in two recent posts materials for learning Biblical Hebrew vocabulary that make use of semantic domains. …