introduction

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sblarose
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Mar 26, 2015 12:19 am
Location: Anderson, IN
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introduction

Post by sblarose »

Hello. I was once upon a time active on the email forum and have finally found my way here. I am a new faculty member at Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana, teaching Hebrew online. Our hope is to create an environment suitable for learners with and without disabilities to learn together, as Hebrew is often a difficult language for some students with disabilities to learn alongside their peers. I am blind, and I learned Hebrew via one-on-one instruction and Greek in class with sighted peers. My formal coursework has been limited by a lack of access to textbooks; and this is a problem that faces all scholars who are blind. It is also a problem that I hope to find ways to remedy in the future. Logos software has been a great benefit to me as I have advanced my Hebrew study informally.

I was a TA in a Greek course that included students with various kinds of special needs. My role included helping them to develop strategies for learning and retaining their language skills. Most of them went on to take at least another year of Greek, and some of them went on to also take Hebrew. I realized then that I wanted to do for Hebrew students what I had done in the Greek course--and they needed it more. My email files are full of correspondence from people who are blind who have dropped out of Hebrew--or who could not find a way to begin in the first place.

Teaching Hebrew will be a new adventure--there are things I can use from my Greek experience but also things I cannot anticipate. I expect I will primarily be a reader here; but I will certainly speak up when I have something to say.
Sarah Blake LaRose
http://www.night-light.org
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Kirk Lowery
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Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2013 12:03 pm
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Re: introduction

Post by Kirk Lowery »

Sarah,

Welcome back! We haven't had much discussion here about the pedagogical aspects of Biblical Hebrew. I'm sure members would be interested in your observations and experience.

Kirk
Kirk E. Lowery, PhD
B-Hebrew Site Administrator & Moderator
blog: https://blogs.emdros.org/eh
sblarose
Posts: 8
Joined: Thu Mar 26, 2015 12:19 am
Location: Anderson, IN
Contact:

Re: introduction

Post by sblarose »

Thanks, Kirk. I am surprised, as there was some quite good discussion about it on the old forum. Perhaps it has all gone to the blogs, SBL forum, etc. Would it be worth adding a forum specific to teaching? It seems to me that pedagogy might get lost in the general forum depending on how active the general forum is; and it is certainly not a beginner topic.

My background prior to going to seminary was in psychology and special education. It makes for a rather different view on language teaching; but I guess we will see how it goes. About half of our students are training for pastoral work, and these run the gamut from senior pastor track to other types of pastoral work. All who receive the M.Div. are required to take two years of either Hebrew or Greek. The other half of students taking language courses are on an advanced academic track or have other goals, e.g. missionary service. A few are guest students from other universities; and these also have a mixture of goals. The language courses at AU are soffered by the seminary and are open to graduate and undergraduate students alike--the students do the same work but register through their respective catalogs. So I may have freshman as well as seasoned students together in the course. My only observation about this from Greek is that it changes the social dynamic of the course. Some of the young students might pick up language more readily, depending on their previous background, than some of the older students. This is, of course, not true in every case.

Thanks again for the welcome.
Sarah Blake LaRose
http://www.night-light.org
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Kirk Lowery
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Posts: 363
Joined: Fri Aug 09, 2013 12:03 pm
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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Re: introduction

Post by Kirk Lowery »

If there is sufficient interest, I would be open to the idea of a subforum dedicated to the teaching of Biblical Hebrew. Right now, we don't have a huge volume of posts, so nothing gets lost right now. ;-)

What do others think? If there were such a subforum, would you be encouraged to post about teaching?
Kirk E. Lowery, PhD
B-Hebrew Site Administrator & Moderator
blog: https://blogs.emdros.org/eh
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