Does anyone really oppose these methods? I've heard people say they wouldn't know how to teach using these methods, or that there aren't enough materials broadly available, or that they can't easily attend classes that use these methods. From what I can tell, these methods are really good.Mark Lightman wrote:What's funny about those who oppose these teaching methods in favor of grammar/translation is that you don't need a teacher or a class to work your way through Machen or Mounce, to say nothing of Wallace. You can do this just fine on your own. What you REALLY need a class for is the the sort of thing that you are doing. Not only hearing/seeing the teacher asking questions in Greek but also the students answering them in Greek.
But sometimes I feel that the enthusiasm for Living Koine methods expressed on B-Greek focuses too much on evangelizing for the method, and too little on figuring out how to make materials more broadly available, thinking of fluency-based approaches that are accessible for those who don't have a Living Koine class available to them, etc. I'd rather hear a lot less "this method is so much better than everything else" and a lot more "here are methods you can use to improve your Greek".
Suppose a Greek instructor who teaches a class wants to improve what he is teaching this semester, what can he do?
Suppose someone like me is working on improving his Greek at home, what can I do? I have started listening to a lot of Greek, because audio is widely available. I don't speak Greek fluently at all, I'm just beginning to work on writing it, I find that it's a lot easier to write sentences that are a lot like the sentences that I hear from the New Testament tapes. I think there could be a lot more materials for teaching Greek, more widely available, taking advantage of living language techniques. It's possible to learn most languages outside of the classroom using available materials, I've learned several that way, and it should be easier to do this with Greek. The classroom is the best situation, but not everyone is in the classroom, and those who are probably aren't in a classroom that uses Living Koine techniques.
Can y'all post more materials on the Internet? Youtube videos that are really instructional, with high quality content? Could we work together to write software that would teach using these methods? Louis has offered a Moodle-based course, and has made many recordings freely available, I think that's great. People can also buy Randall's materials, which are very well done - I'm starting at the beginning, I haven't yet figured out how high a level they reach, is there need for more Living Koine materials past that level? Don't tell me that your way is better, tell me that the materials are at this URL and they are available for me to use.
And sometimes the Living Koine people seem to be putting down everyone else, and I think that's a shame. There are clearly people who read Greek very well, and are true scholars, who did not learn this way. I imagine that is also true of most of the people whose scholarship I rely on when I use lexicons, commentaries, grammars, or other aids. I'm no Greek scholar, but B-Greek is full of true Greek scholars who did not learn using Living Koine approaches. I don't hear any of these people putting down the Living Koine methods, I do hear some saying they wouldn't know where to start to use these methods in their classrooms.
I like seeing discussion of Living Koine on B-Greek, and I hope B-Greek can encourage people to develop these materials and spread these approaches. I do want B-Greek to be a welcoming place for the rest of the world too.