Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>]

Karl wrote:
Hebrew is a language, and academic study is not the only way to master a 
language. (I read a couple of years ago about an ESL teacher in China who 
complained that he often met illiterate farmers who spoke better English than 
his college students!) Academic study is just a more formalized way to study 
a language.


JCP: This is something, that as an EFL teacher, I can confirm from firsthand 
experience. My worst students 
by far were the accademic grammar basher types, who could typically ace an 
exam paper but couldn't order a 
cup of coffe in a cafe' if their life depended on it.
My best students were typically olympic athletes that had never studied the 
language from a grammatical 
point of view. When faced with a written exam they would typically make 
enormous errors but while speaking 
they would not make such errors as they spoke by instinct and had the ability 
to not only make themselves 
understood but to use idioms and slangy sayings in correct contexts.

This email has been scanned for all viruses by the MessageLabs Email
Security System.