I have developed an interactive, web-based Greek learning tool for learning paradigms and vocabulary in which the student reads stories which can be manipulated into dozens of variations. My goal is to make the learning of Greek morphology easier without having to rely on the rote memorization of paradigms. So far I have stories which focus on 2nd declension masculine nouns but also includes some other vocabulary due to the nature of the manipulation of the stories. For the project to really succeed it needs to have more stories to cover the full range of declension types found in Greek. I invite you to view the site at: http://www3.telus.net/norbertre/index.html. The stories can be seen http://www3.telus.net/norbertre/Greek05.html. The requirments for viewing the site is having a unicode Greek font installed (links are available on the site) and having javascript enabled on your browser. This site will be tested in a classroom setting as a supplement to traditional Greek teaching method this summer. (There are English translation mouse-overs for the Greek words so that even beginner students can read an entire story without having to memorize the vocabulary first.) I hope to gain some feedback from students from this to guide future development.
I would like to solicit some feedback (especially from Greek experts and teachers) on several areas.
1.) Does this approach warrant further development?
2.) Is the interface useable and intuitive?
3.) Does anyone have (simple) stories which they already use for teaching Greek that they would willing to be made available for this site? Contact me off-list.
4.) Would anyone be interested in authoring some stories for this site? The greatest benefit for doing so is that by writing one story, it can actually become over 100 different stories and can be used to teach complete paradigms and vocabulary in a more enjoyable manner. Full credit of authorship will be given for every story. Stories can be submitted in Greek or English (I will translate them and have them checked by a Greek prof.)
More information on authoring stories for this site can be seen at: http://www3.telus.net/norbertre/Authoring.html.
Enjoy reading Greek, not memorizing paradigms!
Norbert Rennert
Canada Institute of Linguistics
Langley, BC
Canada