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Acting out Greek Vocab/Phrases

Posted: September 19th, 2015, 2:38 pm
by Austin Porter
I am currently exploring Greek teaching methods, and I was wondering what the benefits/disadvantages are of having students physically act out (sort of like a drama class) their Greek vocabulary words and some basic Greek phrases? Does this style of teaching have any success with language acquisition and retention?

Re: Acting out Greek Vocab/Phrases

Posted: September 20th, 2015, 8:00 am
by Jonathan Robie
Austin Porter wrote:I am currently exploring Greek teaching methods, and I was wondering what the benefits/disadvantages are of having students physically act out (sort of like a drama class) their Greek vocabulary words and some basic Greek phrases? Does this style of teaching have any success with language acquisition and retention?
Anything that involves students responding to Greek physically, verbally in Greek, or in writing in Greek makes them think in Greek, and also gives you a chance to monitor how they are doing. I think it's best if you don't write a memorized script, but give them a chance to respond, but I don't have data on that.

Think about how acting out this phrase can convey the relation between the participle and the main verb:

καὶ ἰδὼν αὐτὸν
ἀντιπαρῆλθεν·

This morning, we will be acting that out, and I bet students will remember it. Happens twice in today's verses ... I will use some imperatives, first without the pariticple:

ἐλθὲ!
ἀντιπαρἐλθὲ!
ἰδὼν ἐμέ, ἐλθὲ!
ἰδὼν ἐμέ, ἀντιπαρἐλθὲ!

Re: Acting out Greek Vocab/Phrases

Posted: September 20th, 2015, 8:13 am
by Jonathan Robie
By the way, has anyone every tried playing charades in Greek? Perhaps restricting the possibilities to a set of known phrases or to the terms used in a passage?

Re: Acting out Greek Vocab/Phrases

Posted: September 20th, 2015, 12:49 pm
by Austin Porter
Jonathan Robie wrote:By the way, has anyone every tried playing charades in Greek? Perhaps restricting the possibilities to a set of known phrases or to the terms used in a passage?
I wonder if using some of the discourse between Christ and His disciples from the gospels would help? They might be familiar enough to both the student and the teacher. For example:

(Ἐλθὼν δὲ ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἰς τὰ μέρη Καισαρείας τῆς Φιλίππου ἠρώτα τοὺς μαθητὰς αὐτοῦ λέγων)·
Teacher: τίνα λέγουσιν οἱ ἄνθρωποι εἶναι τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ ἀνθρώπου;
Student(s): οἱ δὲ εἶπαν· οἱ μὲν Ἰωάννην τὸν βαπτιστήν, ἄλλοι δὲ Ἠλίαν, ἕτεροι δὲ Ἰερεμίαν ἢ ἕνα τῶν προφητῶν.
Teacher: λέγει αὐτοῖς· ὑμεῖς δὲ τίνα με λέγετε εἶναι;
Student(s): ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ Σίμων Πέτρος εἶπεν· σὺ εἶ ὁ χριστὸς ὁ υἱὸς τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ ζῶντος. 
Teacher: Ἀποκριθεὶς δὲ (ὁ Ἰησοῦς εἶπεν αὐτῷ)· μακάριος εἶ, Σίμων Βαριωνᾶ, ὅτι σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα οὐκ ἀπεκάλυψέν σοι ἀλλ’ ὁ πατήρ μου ὁ ἐν τοῖς οὐρανοῖς.

This is Matthew 16:13-17 where Peter declares Christ to be the Messiah. I am not sure if this would be too hard, but once there is a basic understanding of some of the vocabulary maybe it could be put into practice.

Re: Acting out Greek Vocab/Phrases

Posted: September 20th, 2015, 4:15 pm
by Austin Porter
Austin Porter wrote:
This is Matthew 16:13-17 where Peter declares Christ to be the Messiah. I am not sure if this would be too hard, but once there is a basic understanding of some of the vocabulary maybe it could be put into practice.
This would probably be better for a call and response exercise rather than an acting out, or charades exercise.