{"id":3063,"date":"2025-01-15T19:18:37","date_gmt":"2025-01-15T17:18:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/?p=3063"},"modified":"2025-01-21T17:51:51","modified_gmt":"2025-01-21T15:51:51","slug":"tradition-sla","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thehebrewcafe.com\/main\/2025\/01\/tradition-sla\/","title":{"rendered":"A Traditional Grammarian\u2019s Take On Second-Language Aquisition (SLA) Methods"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Way back in the dark ages (2007, to be precise), I started seminary. Of course, Hebrew was my favorite, so the Hebrew program was what I wanted to experience the most!  It wasn’t long before I was tutoring and leading the reading groups for the young’uns, as we down south are wont to call them.<\/p>\n

Like every other grammar I had ever used, Seow’s starting point was the traditional grammar-translation method<\/em>; that is, one is expected to learn Hebrew by – you guessed it – learning the grammar and doing the subsequent exercises. Of course, there are no “reading” exercises in Seow’s grammar – or Lambdin’s.  At least not that many, and not beyond the first few lessons.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Enter John A. Cook, who started teaching at Asbury just as I entered.<\/p>\n

Dr. Cook was a peculiarity: he was the first Hebrew linguist that Asbury Theological Seminary (my alma mater<\/em>) had ever hired.  And boy, were they skeptical. “Can you do this? Do you think you could teach this? Is knowing Hebrew Bible enough to teach exegesis courses?” (For those wondering, the answer to all of these questions was “yes”, followed by a polite laugh.) In his interview, he informed the administration that he was writing his own grammar\u2014a grammar which, were he to have his way, would replace Seow and drastically change the direction of Asbury’s Hebrew program. <\/p>\n

One of the reasons why people were so skeptical of him was precisely because<\/em> of the grammar he had created\u2014a grammar which opts to bypass the traditional GTM in favor of an SLA model. Or, at least, elements<\/em> of an SLA model. Gone were the lengthy grammatical explanations, the extensive lessons on irregular verbs, whose complete paradigms and grammatical notes were housed in the Appendices in the back of the book, rather than to be introduced in the lessons themselves. Why?  Because the forms were rare, and Dr. Cook didn’t believe that students should suffer needlessly over verbs which occur relatively rarely, at least compared to the other verb types.<\/p>\n

Gone were the traditional grammar-translation approaches, replaced by colorful comic strips, abbreviated grammar lessons, dialogue exercises with a partner (\u05d0\u05b4\u05d9\u05e9\u05c1 \u05d0\u05b6\u05dc \u05e8\u05b5\u05e2\u05b5\u05d4\u05d5\u05bc<\/span>), and making sentences out of cut-out pictures. Rather than explain Hebrew grammar in the traditional Latin terms, Cook (and Holmstedt, his co-author – I mustn’t leave him out) opted to replace them with their Hebrew equivalents. For example, rather than the traditional “construct state”, which is one of the ways in which Hebrew expresses possession, Cook and Holmstedt opt for the Hebrew term \u05e1\u05b0\u05de\u05b4\u05d9\u05db\u05d5\u05bc\u05ea (“bound”). The authors have replaced grammatical terms across the board: “derived stems” were now \u05d1\u05bc\u05b4\u05e0\u05b0\u05d9\u05b8\u05e0\u05b4\u05d9\u05dd<\/span>; “absolute” and “construct” nouns are referred to as the \u05e1\u05d5\u05b9\u05de\u05b5\u05da\u05b0<\/span> and \u05e0\u05b4\u05e1\u05b0\u05de\u05b8\u05da\u05b0<\/span>, respectively; likewise, the dageshim lene<\/em> and forte<\/em> are now called \u05d3\u05bc\u05b8\u05d2\u05b5\u05e9\u05c1 \u05e7\u05b7\u05dc<\/span> and \u05d3\u05bc\u05b8\u05d2\u05b5\u05e9\u05c1 \u05d7\u05b8\u05d6\u05b8\u05e7<\/span> (“light” and “strong”), respectively.<\/p>\n

So, we have a new grammar, colorful illustrations, abbreviated lessons, more interactive classroom experiences, and a new focus on reading and pronouncing the text.<\/p>\n

And I hated it.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned for Part Two. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Way back in the dark ages (2007, to be precise), I started seminary. Of course, Hebrew was my favorite, so the Hebrew program was what I wanted to experience the most!  It wasn’t long before I was tutoring and leading the reading groups for the young’uns, as we down south are wont to call them. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"bgseo_title":"","bgseo_description":"","bgseo_robots_index":"index","bgseo_robots_follow":"follow","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-categories"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t