Biblical Hebrew Forum

[James Christian <jc.bhebrew AT googlemail.com>]

Agreed, vocabulary acquisition should focus not only on attested forms but
start with high frequency ones. Grammar is secondary to vocabulary
acquisition. With enough stimulus of correct usage grammar could and should
be induced if we are aiming to simulate/stimulate natural language
acquisition.

James Christian

2010/2/21 Randall Buth <randallbuth AT gmail.com>

> Looking at the BH vocabulary cards raises a pedagogical question for
> students--
>
> should a student learn real words like
> hishkim/yashkim le-hashkim   (to rise early, be early, in the morning)
> or
> should they focus on roots like
> sh.k.m.  (no attested meaning for qal, [?? 'to carry on shoulder' ??])
>
> Pedagogical studies would recommend learning to use items without
> adding an extra 'mental calculation' [for 'hif`ilizing roots'-whatever that
> would be], and etymologizing for synchronic semantics is also to be
> discouraged. Efficient living language courses with the 'Semitic root
> system' also focus on real words: Arabic, both modern dialectical and
> 'standard written', modern Hebrew, Syriac, Amharic.
>
> These considerations lead me to think that students should
> learn to relate first to
> hishkim/yashkim le-hashkim.
> And that is obviously the way children would have had to learn BH in
> antiquity.
>
> Randall Buth
>
>
> --
> Randall Buth, PhD
> www.biblicalulpan.org
> randallbuth AT gmail.com
> Biblical Language Center
> Learn Easily - Progress Further - Remember for Life
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