>
>>We teach our beginners now, by the way, from Schoder & Horrigan, Greek
>>through Homer (vel sim.). Because Homerica grammar is much simpler than
>>later Greek, it goes fast, and we get through nearly a book of the Odyssey
>>in the first year.
>
>I can sympathize in view of the difficulties Classics departments are
>encountering in keeping students, but maybe an equally good or better
>approach is to do NT Greek, if the idea can be sold to the department.
>Granted, Homer is probably more appropriate and a Classics or Greek grad
>should be able to say that s/he has read a significant amount of Homer, but
>wouldn't NT Greek provide a better foundation, short of an Attic Greek
>approach? Perhaps Mary would comment on the transition their students make
>to Attic, whether they encounter major problems or not.
By second semester we start giving them some prose to supplement the Homer,
often NT. In third semester we typically do Euripides, where the
deliberately archaic elements, esp. in the choruses, make the transition
less difficult. Then in fourth semester we usually try Plato, and, at
least this past term, they do beautifully.
My experience with students who begin with koine is limited to the MA
students in religion who work with us in Classics, but it's not uplifting.
Last fall I had a class in Mark with our undergraduates, who had come
through a curriculum like the one I've described, and MA students with 2 -4
years of NT. The gap in their preparation and facility with the language
was so drastic I had to split the class, and the undergraduates read nearly
twice as much in the course of the semester.
Mary
Mary Pendergraft
Associate Professor of Classical Languages
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem NC 27109-7343
336-758-5331 (NOTE: this is a new number) pender@wfu.edu