Jump to content

Learning Biblical Hebrew Interactively (Paul Overland)


Timothy Jenney

Recommended Posts

Has anyone taught (or taken) Hebrew using Dr. Paul Overland's Learning Biblical Hebrew Interactively? 

 

http://www.learningbiblicalhebrewinteractively.com/

 

How satisfied were you with it? Is it more effective than traditional teaching methods?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was at a workshop that Paul ran early on in his development of this approach. While I ended up going in a slightly different direction for Cook's and my textbook, I cannot stress enough that the "interactive" (or communicative) approach to learning even ancient languages is light years better than the grammar-translation approach. The one warning I would give is this: teaching Biblical Hebrew interactively requires a good deal of effort on the part of the teacher. The teacher must view Biblical Hebrew as a living language and be ready to have the kind of simple interactions that occur in any beginning language clause (e.g., questions, answers, with numerous variations). It's great fun, but for many it will also require great preparation. It's worth every bit of it, though.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you, Robert!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 5 weeks later...

My Professor for Hebrew 1 introduced some of this method of interactive teaching. We each had to offer simple commands to another classmate (sit, stand, etc) which was fun and helped us grasp the liquid movement of language. I would be more amiable to a diachronic approach and more rigid grammatical emphasis. While not a big fan of the interactive approach, I would say small exercises like it are good, immersive tools. Not sure how helpful this comment is for the discussion but as a student, I think it is a good step but not the best way to teach.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks, Matt. That's the conclusion I am reaching, too.

 

Holmstedt and Cook's grammar has been recommended to me as a nice balance between the two systems.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...