A Greek’s Journey in Beginning Greek

Antonios C. Augoustakis (Baylor University)

In the summer of 2007, I taught a five-week Intensive Greek class, which covered in a very fast pace two semesters of Elementary Greek in twenty-five three-hour per day meetings. In this paper, I discuss the challenges I faced in this class from my perspective as a Modern Greek classicist teaching my native language to American students. Can Greek really be presented in a simpler manner by a Greek to non-Greeks? The answer is positive and negative at the same time. I shall address the following issues: 1)how to instill in students appreciation and excitement for Greek; 2) how to retain students and encourage them to continue with third semester Greek; 3) how to hold up a standard that is not too easy and not too hard; 4) how to address students with a diverse cultural background.

In my paper presentation, I use several examples from grammar instruction in the classroom, with particular focus on verb paradigms. One of my conclusions is that by making students aware of the challenges I encountered while learning other European languages, I instill in them the basic idea that learning a language has both inherent difficulties and great pleasures. By making conscious mistakes, such as confusing the tenses of an English verb, I help students understand that behind a simple mistake lies a more complex explanation of syntax or grammatical phenomena, both in English and in Greek. While not sacrificing the standards of a rigorous curriculum, I must frequently choose to omit the minute details of Greek grammar, since my purpose in Beginning Greek is to present undergraduate students with the substance of the language without overwhelming them.