| Among the available sites related to Greek language study some offer
synopses or summaries of basic Greek grammar. Others present full
explanations of Greek grammar somewhat akin to an on-line textbook.
For users with no prior training in the language these sites can provide
an overview introducing the language or a starting point in learning
the language. For those users who are especially able with language
acquisition these sites may even provide sufficient resources to do
independent study of the language. However, these sites share three
qualities in common: (1) prior knowledge of Greek is not necessarily
assumed, (2) they are directed primarily toward information acquisition,
(3) the language rules are explained with few examples from the NT
text.
By contrast this site is directed primarily toward those who have
a prior knowledge of Greek and are seeking to refresh their skills
for further study of the Greek language or the text of the NT. For
example, college or seminary students who have already taken basic
Greek may need to brush up before taking a competency exam, enrolling
in an intermediate or advanced level Greek course, or taking exegesis
courses based on the Greek rather than English text of the NT.
Furthermore, for these students, practice with the language rather
than simply reviewing grammatical rules is necessary for recovery
of vocabulary and polishing the skills of parsing, translation and
grammatical analysis. The rules can come back quickly, but recognizing
and applying those rules to particular texts does not always come
back so easily. In other words, students often need more than a
textbook, they need someone to explain structures and functions
in context. Therefore, this site also includes interactive drilling
in Greek vocabulary, practice in parsing, drilling in recognition
of syntactical structures, and sentences for translation with full
grammatical explanations for the syntax and function of every word
in the sentence. This approach focuses on practice with the language
rather than information acquisition and provides detailed explanations
for all the practice sentences from the NT text.
The site has 27 units for review and practice. Each topic has its
own page with a summary of the grammar points related to that topic,
at least four sentences applying those grammar points, and hypertext
links to grammatical explanations for every word in every sentence.
Furthermore, each topic is related to vocabulary, parsing, grammatical
terminology, and syntactical structure drilling routines to test
the user's level of proficiency for that specific topic.
The vocabulary interface permits users either to practice vocabulary
recognition on a randomly selected list of words or to use parts
of speech or number of occurrences as criteria for designating specific
groups of words for drilling. Similarly, the function analysis interface
allows users to select general structures to identify or a randomly
generated list of Greek examples of the structures for practicing
both recognition and identification in Greek.
Finally, the site is designed to accommodate users who may have
older, slower technology or may be located in more remote areas
where access to the internet is limited and large downloads are
not always possible. Therefore, few graphics, extra applications,
or "plug-ins" are necessary for using the site. Whatever
may have been lost in "bells and whistles" is more than
compensated by the "lean" operational profile.
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