Lighten Up! A Practical Approach
to Keeping Students in Elementary Greek

Timothy F. Winters (Austin Peay State University)

Concisely put, I suggest that if we want to retain students, we should let them have a little fun.  It is all too often ignored that Greek was not reserved for a few literati to write their great works.  It was (and is still) a spoken language.  Although we often teach it as though it was only a vehicle for great literary expression, we all know that there are slang expressions, abbreviated forms, dialect differences, and curse words, and we rarely if ever take advantage of such things to put a little life in the language for our students.  It is too easy to put the blame for this on textbooks.  A quick handout, or even a few minutes at the board, noting insults involving animals, e.g., or offering some of the coined words in Aristophanes, can spice up a class and make a connection with English.  Likewise curse tablets, those bits of rolled up lead with a few words scratched onto them, help students to see that ordinary people used this language for all sorts of communication.  It is not a crime to make learning Greek fun.

In accord with that, in our zeal to focus on the greatness of Sophocles, Homer, Plato, et al., we create a false impression in the minds of our students.  They come to believe that Greek writing is all fairly serious stuff.  A second secret that should be let out is the existence of the Anacreonta.  These drinking songs often bear a marked resemblance to the lyrics of today's popular songs, and thus provide a great touchstone for shared experience.  It is not necessary that students know every form or vocabulary word in an ancient Greek drinking song; seeing these with translations encourages students to work a bit harder so that they can read more such material.  Students may even be moved to try their hand at composing a brief poem of their own, or translating a verse of a modern song into Greek.  If we can demonstrate to our students that Greek was lively, they are more likely to deepen their interest and therefore to stay put. 

Finally, most of us learned Greek in a classroom in which the students had precious little to do beyond sit still and answer questions.  But as our colleagues in modern languages have known for decades, students make great teaching tools, and they can be very helpful in demonstrating, for example, the three voices.  A quick demonstration with the verb paÊv can break up a boring morning, focus the students' attention, and imprint the idea of voice much more strongly than the sound of my voice droning on at the head of the class.  We often tend to dismiss such things as the brief skits done by students of modern languages, because we do not teach Greek as a spoken language, but in that dismissal, we miss opportunities.  Such physical interaction with the students can be put to good use in a variety of ways.  Actions do speak louder than words, and they certainly assist the memory.  They also demonstrate to the students that abstract concepts have practical applications.  Although they run contrary to most professors' notions of how Greek ought to be taught, such activities can affect retention rates for the good.

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