BLC Blog

BLC Blog2017-06-12T21:31:21-07:00

First Steps in CLT

By |December 6th, 2011|Categories: ancient language acquisition, Hebrew alive, Hebrew as second language, second language acquisition, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

At the annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL) in San Francisco, CA, Brian Schultz presented a paper on "First Steps to get Started in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)." In his paper, he presented three options as to how instructors of biblical languages can begin incorporating some aspects of CLT into their curriculum.

Soma Song

By |November 9th, 2011|Categories: ancient Greek, ancient language acquisition, biblical language fluency, Galilee, Greek immersion, Koine Greek, Living Koine, second language acquisition|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

As a result of the BLC's Koine Greek immersion programs, and especially the Workshop for Instructors this past summer in Fresno, CA, there has been growing interest in a song written and composed by BLC's [...]

Language is Communication

By |November 7th, 2011|Categories: ancient language acquisition, Biblical Hebrew, biblical language fluency, Hebrew alive, Hebrew as second language, second language acquisition|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

A couple quick anecdotes. Last year I interviewed a few of my students to get their thoughts about my biblical Hebrew course taught using Communicative Language Teaching.  The one student had the following comment: Learning [...]

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Another Report on the Greek Workshop

By |November 4th, 2011|Categories: ancient Greek, ancient language acquisition, Greek immersion, Greek pedagogy, Koine Greek, Living Koine, second language acquisition, Uncategorized|Tags: , , , , , , , |

A while back I wrote my own report on what transpired at this past summer's Greek Workshop held in August 2011 in Fresno, CA. I don't know how I missed it until now, but a [...]

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Contrasting methodologies

By |October 30th, 2011|Categories: ancient language acquisition, biblical language fluency, Hebrew as second language, Reading biblical languages, second language acquisition|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Last week I had to give a talk to my colleagues, the faculty of the School of Humanities, Religion and Social Sciences at Fresno Pacific University.  I chose to speak on the importance of teaching [...]

Reading in context

By |October 9th, 2011|Categories: ancient language acquisition, biblical language fluency, Reading biblical languages, second language acquisition|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Frank Smith, one of the foremost psycholingists of our day, has spent much of his time studying the psychology and mechanics of reading. For those of us involved in the instruction of biblical languages, where our stated goal is that our students be able to read the Bible fluently, his research is most relevant. I just finished reading a collection of his essays entitled "Unspeakable Acts, Unnatural Practices". Based on the research he shares in those essays, I suggest at least four ways instructors of biblical languages can adapt their teaching to help their students learn to read more efficiently.

Mini Quiz: Biblical or Modern Hebrew

By |September 30th, 2011|Categories: ancient language acquisition, Biblical Hebrew, biblical language fluency, Hebrew alive, Hebrew as second language, modern Hebrew, second language acquisition|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

In my last post, I posted a video clip of one of my class sessions for beginning biblical Hebrew.  One of the accusations sometimes leveled at us who try to teach using Communicative Language Teaching [...]

לַעֲשׂוֹת as “to do” and “to make”

By |September 22nd, 2011|Categories: ancient language acquisition, Biblical Hebrew, biblical language fluency, Hebrew alive|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

The video clip below is from the first year Hebrew class I am teaching at Fresno Pacific University.  It is from the 8th class period of 50 mns each (if one counts the first class [...]

Daniel Streett on the state of Greek studies

By |September 16th, 2011|Categories: ancient Greek, ancient language acquisition, biblical language fluency, Greek immersion, Greek pedagogy, Koine Greek|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

Daniel Streett, whom I had the pleasure of meeting for the first time last year at SBL, has recently written a series of blog posts on the state of Greek studies in the academy.  It [...]

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What Happened at the Greek Instructors Fluency Workshop in Fresno, Aug 2011

By |September 16th, 2011|Categories: ancient Greek, ancient language acquisition, biblical language fluency, Greek immersion, Greek pedagogy, Koine Greek, Living Koine|Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |

From August 3-11, the Biblical Language Center (BLC), in association with Fresno Pacific University, led a fluency workshop for instructors of New Testament Greek in Fresno, California.  The effort to renew the speaking of New Testament [...]

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