What you state seems intuitive, but do you have any study
that would back it up? Such definitive statements as you
make require a broad based study involving different
teachers and different pools of potential students.
Otherwise, you present hypothesis as law.
My experience is that motivation is more a determining
factor to the number of students who participate than does
the work that is involved. I would expect that, given the
same pool of potential students, someone like Bryan
Rocine, who presents the learning of Hebrew as something
doable and worthwhile, would have more attend classes than
would an instructor who came to the class with the
sentiments that you express, namely, that a study of the
actual language is hard and expected to be done only by a
few.
Again, in my experience, the ones who have received
training in the mere use of tools have nearly all stopped
using even those tools within a relatively short time
frame (2-5 years or less). On the other hand, those who
are brought through a more complete study of the language
by a motivating instructor have a much higher rate of
long-term usage of the original texts. So, shout as you
may in proclaiming your point of view, what you state as
law flies in the face of my experience both in the States
and abroad.
All the best,
Paul Zellmer
You wrote:
Clayton Javurek
E-MAIL: javurek AT asu.edu
Here is the bottom line:
NUMBER OF STUDENTS PARTICIPATING IN A BIBLICAL LANGUAGE
CLASS IN INVERSELY PROPORTIONAL TO THE AMOUNT OF
MEMORIZATION REQUIRED IN THE CLASS.
If you want to teach the biblical languages to the
greatest number of persons, you have to minimize the
amount of memorization required. This is what I try to do.
I do not care if they are learn the language thoroughly or
not. I do not care if they become original thinkers and
can sight read the text. What I do care is that they have
face to face exposure with the original text is the most
convenient way possible.
If you are only concerned that persons learn the language
thoroughly, then automatically expect that the number of
students in class will be very, very low.
This law is inflexible and absolute.
Why? People, like electricity and water, generally search
for the path of least resistance. Memorization is
resistance to learning a language. People will try to find
ways around the memorization. If they cannot find those
ways around it, they will leave your language class.
YOU CAN TAKE THAT TO THE BANK!
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