Language Pedagogy
The goal of Scripturial App is to help a person with no Biblical Greek experience learn the basics of Biblical Greek. The strategy to achieve this involves two primary activities:
- Repeated practice of a carefully chosen small set of vocabulary items inside short readable sentences.
- Repeated practice of the most important grammatical patterns using the vocabulary items.
Activity
Scripturial presents a series of short 3-6 minute long activities. An activity usually has a clear theme or a topic, but occasionally focusses on a small grammar point. An activity usually contains a collection of reading, listening, and questions cards. Often pictures can be included when concrete items are being learnt. (Book, cup, table, walk, run, etc...)
Grammar explanations are used sparingly. A student can learn the difference between μενῶ (I stay) and μενεῖ (She/She stays) through presentation of example audio, text, and flashcards. But the terms first person and third person do not help younger younger children, who have typically not yet learn't the meaning of these terms.
Some Grammar explanations have still been included when absolutely necessary. Sometimes grammar points are presented in summary after it has been learnt inductively. Sometimes grammar points are presented because user testing has revealed that a little extra help is needed
Each activity usually has only one goal. An activity may introduces:
- a single word;
- a single grammatical concept;
- provide revision of words and grammar.
Occasionally it makes more sense to introduce two words at the same time, for example, good (ἀγαθός) and bad (κακός). Also, sometimes multiple words will be introduced at the same time when they are easier to learn due to the fact they sound simliar to a corresponding English word.
Activity Balance
The ultimate aim of Scripturial is to allow a student to learn the basics of Biblical Greek with or without access to a teacher or tutor. It is not always possible to have a teacher or tutor on call when we get stuck. Designing content that everyone is able to to use without getting stuck is is difficult. People have different language backgrounds, learning styles, learning speeds and preferences.
The general aim is to provide content that leans towards the average beginner. This means there will be advanced students that find Scripturial progresses too slowly. There will also be some students that may need to repeat an activity several times to absorb the content. Balancing the content of the app has been the one of the most difficult parts of designing the content. There are bound to be places where this balance needs to be improved. If there are areas which you believe are too difficult, I would love to hear from you.
Vocabulary Progression
The vocabulary of Scripturial is different to traditional Biblical Greek textbooks. Scripturial begins with words that are easily communicated using pictures. The reason for this is to try decrease the dependence on English. This is why the first words presented to students are verbs such as stay and walk; and nouns such as, book, tree, cup, tree, table, numbers, and colours.
The second reason for choosing this vocabulary, is to quickly get to the point where simple complete sentences can be formed. We want to very quickly get to the point where we can use props and pictures to practice the language. i.e., "The blue cup is on the table," "The green book is on the chair." "Peter walks to Jerusalem", "Mary stays in Israel", "Jesus is in the old house." The idea behind this is to allow a student or teacher to start speaking and acting out genuine comprihensible sentences either at home or in the classroom. Generally, the learning process is more fun when we can use the language with other people.
