I would like to give a warm welcome to one of my long time academic mentors and friends, Dr. Daniel R. Street, who has finally joined the blogging world. The blog, cleverly entitled “καὶ τὰ λοιπά“, meaning “and so on” or “et cetera” (etc), will be dedicated primarily to the teaching of Koine Greek as a living language, although he will be including posts on New Testament studies and cognate fields. Streett’s pedagogical methodology has been incredibly successful in the classroom at Criswell College as seen in the example of first year Greek students who have come out with a vocabulary triple that of a regular first year student at a normal university or seminary. He focuses on a strictly inductive approach focusing on attempting to create an immersive environment that engages the students on multiple levels.
There are many ways Streett attempts to create the immersive environment needed for the success of his method: giving simple commands and having students actively respond (stand, sit, walk around, pick up your book, etc), pointing and describing while students imitate, asking simple questions, describing pictures using Koine, etc. He has worked hard to find pictures that correspond to all the vocabulary learned in the class. Students will get together and have simple conversations only in Koine or write notes to each other either on paper or on Facebook. It is exciting to see this methodology taking off and the possibilities for it’s development and advancement in the near future.
Make sure and stop by the blog “καὶ τὰ λοιπά” and check it out. If you are interested in learning more about learning Greek as a living language or actually participating in or taking a class with Dr. Daniel R. Streett, feel free to email him at danstreett@gmail.com or contact Criswell College about signing up for classes for the following semester.
