Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Penner" <pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca>]

Jane Harper wrote:

> I suggest the following:  for those of us who don't read 
> Biblical Hebrew every day, rote initial memorization of facts 
> (whether words or rules) is not the issue.  Remote recall is.  And the

> "flash card" approach just doesn't work in that case, unless you spend
a 
> sizeable amount of time every day doing it.  We fight the same battle
in 
> teaching medical students: they have a huge potload of isolated pieces
of 
> information to memorize and they forget it as soon as they've been
tested.

Thanks for your insights from neuroscience; they help explain why some
people have experienced great success using the "flash card" approach.
Perhaps the key is to make the "isolated" pieces of information no
longer isolated, and that's why the "flash card" approach does work if
immediately followed by application of the new information. In other
words, if you learn all the vocabulary used in Psalm 1, then try to read
the Psalm unaided, retention is greatly improved because you have a
context, a framework, in which to place the words. What do you think?

Ken Penner, M.C.S. (Regent College), M.A. (McMaster)
Ph.D. Student, Religious Studies, 
Biblical Field (Early Judaism major)
McMaster University
Hamilton, Canada
pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca
Vocabulary Memorisation Software: 
http://socserv.socsci.mcmaster.ca/westerholm/flash or
http://sensoft.nav.to