B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

I’ve been learning/teaching Biblical languages for the best part of 20 years now. Most of my time has been spent on Koine Greek, but recently I’ve turned my attention back to Biblical Hebrew and the Tanakh. In all that time, one cannot help but reflect from time to time on the process involved in learning a new language.

A personal experience in learning Hebrew about 15 years ago caused me to think more carefully about this. After a learning introductory Biblical Hebrew on my own and then “intermediate” and “advanced” Hebrew in a formal university setting, I found that the 5 year olds in Tel Aviv were still way ahead of me! They could function quite nicely in the Hebrew language; I could not! I knew quite a bit of Biblical Hebrew grammar; they didn’t know what the word grammar means! In short, I realized that if I was going to learn Biblical Hebrew AS A LANGUAGE, I was going to have to expand my learning approach. And so I did – mostly with regard to Hellenistic Greek over the last decade +.

About a year ago, as I was gearing up to revive my Hebrew, I came across some videos by Stephen Krashen, an American linguist with a PhD in Linguistics from UCLA. Krashen’s claim to fame is a plethora of publications on “Second Language Acquisition” (something like 500 publications) and “Bilingual Education”. I was very impressed by Krashen’s findings, because they seemed to confirm what I had discovered by experience over the past couple of decades. (I should note that in the distant past I have also taken university courses in French, Latin, and Russian.)

I thought I would give my summary of Krashen’s findings in the three videos I referred to but first, in light of past discussions on this forum, I want to affirm a couple of things just to make my position clear for the record:

• 1. Every real language exists and functions according to a set of “rules”. The rules of a language are described in its grammar, as well as in other components of its make-up (pronunciation, history, literature, symbols, idioms, and so on).
  2. If you want to function in a language - any real language - then you must submit yourself to the discipline of the rules of that language. That is, you must learn first learn, and then operate in accordance with, the rules of the language.

The five year old child in Tel Aviv, who beat me hands’ down in “acquiring” Hebrew, did so in full compliance with the rules of modern Hebrew – even though he/she had not yet realized it.

Just to keep this post from getting too long, I will place my summary of Krashen in separate posts below.

• 1. The “Acquisition Learning Hypothesis” – There are two very different ways to go about acquiring language – and they are very different:
  • a. You can acquire language.
    b. You can learn language.

• 2. Acquisition is described as a sub-conscious process.
  • a. While you are acquiring, you don’t always know you’re acquiring.
    b. Once you’re finished acquiring, you are not always aware that anything has happened. An example of this is when we hear a rule of grammar broken, we are not always certain what rule has been broken. We are only aware that ‘something doesn’t sound right’.
    c. Everyone can acquire language – it is a part of what it means to be a human being.
    d. This ability is with us forever. It never “shuts off”.

• 3. Learning a language is very different from acquiring a language.
  • a. Learning is knowing about language.
    b. Conscious knowledge of language.
    c. Of these two processes language research has established that acquisition is the far more important one.
    d. When you speak a sentence or respond to something spoken in another language that ability comes from what you’ve acquired – not from what you’ve learned.
    e. All the rules that we’ve learned at school do only one thing for us; they act as a monitor or an editor. When we go to speak a sentence in another language, the sentence comes from our sub-conscious. Before we speak the sentence we ‘scan’ it by the rules we’ve learned, and modify it if necessary. This is not just an intuitive observation; language research has established this clearly.

• 4. Krashen used to think, with many others, that learning languages is a two-component process:
  • a. Acquisition gives us our fluency.
    b. Learning gives us our accuracy.

• 5. In fact, what the research has shown over and over again over the past 10+ years is that this two-component theory is all wrong!
  • a. The important role is with acquisition.
    b. Acquisition gives us fluency and accuracy.
    c. For the adult it is at least 95% acquisition – possibly more.
    d. For the child it is 100% acquisition.

• 6. This principle leads to Krashen’s major point: If learning really does take place by acquisition HOW DOES IT HAPPEN?
  • a. We all acquire language in the same way. This runs against the grain of our society which is so largely focused on how we are different. But language is one thing we all do the same way. It is as fundamental as breathing, as eating, as walking.
    b. We acquire language when we understand messages.
    • i. When we hear someone speak in another language and we understand what they say.
      ii. When we read something in another language, and we understand the message.
      iii. In these situations language acquisition takes place necessarily! Given messages that people understand – COMPREHENSIBLE INPUT – the human language acquisition mechanism goes to work. It happens:
      • 1. sub-consciously,
        2. automatically, and,
        3. inevitably.
    c. This function, unlike what earlier pioneers thought, doesn’t degenerate with age. It happens for the duration of our lives.

• 7. Two corollaries of this principle – that we acquire language when we understand it:
  • a. Language acquisition DOES NOT happen by speaking. The ability to speak another language is a RESULT of acquiring it, not a cause.
    • i. This is strongly supported by evidence in recent literature. For example, if you are trying to learn English, it will not help to speak English in the car as you drive to work in the morning.
      ii. Speaking an acquired language comes on its own – after a period of time. You literally cannot hold it back.
      • 1. There is a period of silence before people begin to speak.
        2. For example, when children come here from another culture, there is typically a period of several months before they begin speaking.
        3. Forcing students to speak, before they are ready, has a negative effect.
        4. When they start to speak, it is not the beginning of their language acquisition. Rather, it is the result of their having acquired the language.
        5. There is a pattern in the speaking
        • a. Certain things come early,
          b. Other things take more time,
          c. After about a year, they are typically speaking the language quite well.
    b. The second corollary has to do with something called “grammatic sequencing”. An example of grammatic sequencing is introducing the verb tenses in a definite order. Thus you might learn present tense in the 1st month, past tense the 2nd month, and so on. The goal is to aid the student in the acquisition of grammar. In fact, what the evidence shows is that if we give people a lot of comprehensible input, grammatic sequencing is not necessary – and it is probably harmful.
    • i. If we give people a rich source of input, all of the grammar rules are contained in the input.
      ii. Not only is grammatic sequence not necessary, but it is boring. And language acquisition is greatly impeded by boredom and tedium.

• 1. First, a brief review of what we know about affective variables
  • a. Motivation: Research has shown that motivation counts in language acquisition. To no one’s great surprise, research shows that the more motivated a student is, the better he/she does in language acquisition.
    b. Self esteem: Self esteem also counts. Those with a better self esteem, a better self-image, do better in language acquisition.
    c. Anxiety: There is also a relationship between anxiety and language acquisition. The lower the anxiety, the better the language acquisition.
    • i. Some anxiety in other endeavors can actually be beneficial. For example, a certain level of anxiety is often beneficial in the training of medical students. In language acquisition, however, anxiety is a barrier.
      ii. For language acquisition to happen effectively, the student has to assume that he/she will be successful.
  2. The affective filter hypothesis, then says that:
  • a. if a student is not motivated,
    b. if self esteem is low,
    c. if anxiety is high,
    d. if the student is on the defensive,
    e. if he thinks the language class is a place where his weakness will be revealed,
    then a block goes up. This block is called the “affective filter”. The student may understand the input, but the input won’t reach those parts of the brain responsible for language acquisition.

• 1. We acquire language in 1 way – when we get comprehensible input in a low anxiety situation.
  2. Language classes, when taught properly, give you comprehensible income that will prepare you for further experience with the language. It is of little value for me to go to Quebec to learn French because I won’t know what is being said. However, if I have attended a well taught class in introductory French, then I will be prepared to learn from my experience in Quebec. A beginner can get more from two hours in a well taught language class than two weeks in the country.
  • a. The goal of the language class is to put you in the position so that you can go to the outside world and get more comprehensible input. The goal of the beginning language class is not to make you perfect. The goal is to equip you with the ability to gain more input from the outside world.
    b. In the same way, the goal of the Biblical language program is to put you in the position so that you can go to the Scriptures and get more comprehensible input. The goal is not to make you perfect in Biblical Hebrew. The goal is to provide you with the ability to receive more language input from reading or listening to the Scriptures.

• 1. Students expect to be taught grammar and analysis. They regard it as academic incompetence if this does not happen.
  2. For those with a strong academic background, the learning approach seems fast and efficient compared to the language acquisition. The strong academic person can take a well-written grammar book and after several hours have a good feeling for the language. The problem is this: THAT INFORMATION IS NOT AVAILABLE TO HIM/HER WHEN HE/SHE ACTUALLY USES THE LANGUAGE.
  3. Acquisition seems subtle; learning seems very concrete. For people with a strong academic background learning is ‘tangible’, ‘conrete’. And learning is pleasant – satisfying.

• 1. The optimal input hypothesis says: We acquire language by input – what we hear and what we read. Not from speaking and writing.
  2. Our ability to speak and to write accurately is the result of acquiring language, not the cause.
  3. The evidence for this:
  • a. The universality of the ‘silent’ period.
    b. Requiring more speaking and writing does not increase language acquisition.
    c. Language acquisition can occur without any output at all.
    d. Increasing input increases the quality of output.
    e. Forcing people to give output before they are ready is the cause of considerable anxiety.
  4. The four characteristics of optimal input:
  • a. Optimal input is comprehensible.
    • i. This does not mean that every detail is comprehensible. You may be reading text where some of the words are unknown to you, but the text overall is comprehensible.
    b. Optimal input is extremely interesting. Compelling input is so interesting that you temporarily forget that its in another language.
    
    c. Optimal input is rich; rich in language and rich in the flow of the story.
    • i. Rich input automatically includes new unacquired language that language acquirers are ready for.
    d. Optimal input is abundant. It takes a lot of comprehensible, compelling, rich input to make real progress.
  5. The result of getting optimal input is sub-conscious language acquisition.
  • a. Language acquirers will be focused on the story – the message – and they will not always be aware that language acquisition has taken place.
  6. The best forms of optimal input are:
  • a. Listening to stories:
    • i. that are made comprehensible in a number of ways
    • • 1. graphics
        2. occasional translation
    b. Reading.
    • i. Large amounts of easy written input.
      • 1. It is the job of the teacher to help students find abundant easy story resources.
  7. Popular ways of acquiring languages only work if they contain large amounts of optimal input.
  • a. For example, immersion MAY contain a great deal of optimal input. Or it may fail if conditions are not right. For example, superficial conversations may result in very little language acquisition.
  8. Given the right conditions, we are all gifted language acquirers.

I think children learn languages fast because they only learn easy words and simple sentences. They don't use hard words like adults. I think the problem with learning languages is that people try to learn words for objects that people don't really discuss like tables and chairs instead of learning words that people use all of the time like think, feel, like, hate, want, fear, hope , worry, etc. People are always discussing feelings and desires and not tables and doors.

I grew up around my mother and her sister who everyday spoke Hungarian a lot in front of me and my brother and sisters. None of us learned or understood any Hungarian because it was not comprehensible at all. Just hearing a lot did not help me know what was being said. Maybe my mother and my aunt should have spoken in English mixed
with Hungarian so we would have heard both languages and figured out things.

Kenneth Greifer

Don't underestimate the miracle that happens in little children as they learn a language, Kenneth! Just think about what has happened in those few short years in this little life. He/she has acquired a remarkable range of vocabulary and expressions, and is able to function in the language INSTANTLY. Not a second is taken to decide what words to speak or how they should go together. It is instant, it is appropriate, and it is with understanding! I still haven't achieved that fully in either of the Biblical languages!

Have you ever listened to a little girl holding forth on her favourite topic at the age of six or seven. (Girls tend to be more verbal at that age.) It is a dazzling display of language competence which involves zero time of forethought! Furthermore, children become very competent in picking up and adapting language because they are not afraid to be wrong and they are not afraid to try something new (assuming they are being nurtured properly).

When I was about 5 years old, and my mother had gone to the hospital to deliver my little brother, one of the neighbour ladies asked me if my mother was home. "No," I said, "She went to the infantry to get our new baby." That was not long after the war years and "infantry" was still a very current word. It is a perfect example of a little child putting together some information to expand his vocabulary! Seemed pretty reasonable to me at the time - infant + where the infants are = infantry!

It is hard to speak about the exact context of your situation with your mother and aunts - perhaps even for you remembering it afterwards - but it is quite common for children to grow up in a similar situation and speak one language to one family member, and another to another family member - easily, naturally, and without any self-consciousness!