Greek vocabulary acquisition using semantic domains

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2003 by Wilson, Mark

I. INTRODUCTION1

Professors of Greek can readily identify with Bernard Brandon Scott's observation, "After completing a beginning grammar course, most students . . . fail to clear the difficult hurdle of mastering sufficient vocabulary to read the Greek NT by sight. Often they become discouraged and quit."2 Rydberg-Cox and Mahoney likewise echo this concern: "Vocabulary acquisition is a particularly vexed question for intermediate students of Greek and Latin."3 While the latters' research involving the Perseus Digital Library has been directed toward students learning classical texts, our concern is that Christian students maximize their potential in learning the koine Greek of the NT. The best way to acquire and master that vocabulary is the subject of this article. Before examining the available approaches to Greek vocabulary acquisition and proposing a fresh alternative, we will first look at some of the current research related to second language (L2) vocabulary acquisition.

II. SECOND LANGUAGE VOCABULARY ACQUISITION

In recent decades a worldwide industry, with research, institutions, and publications, has arisen over second language acquisition. Because English has emerged as the global lingua franca, the English language is the predominant focus of such enterprise. Research conducted in conjunction with ESL programs has valuable implications for teaching biblical languages, particularly vocabulary acquisition. However, even within the ESL movement little emphasis has been placed on the acquisition of vocabulary. Zimmerman writes, "Although the lexicon is arguably central to language acquisition and use, vocabulary instruction has not been a priority in second language acquisition research or methodology."4 Coady cites a typical attitude held by teachers and scholars that teaching vocabulary is a low-level activity not worthy of their complete attention. Although students feel words are very important, teachers tend to believe the challenge is grammar.5 Such attitudes may also characterize Greek pedagogy, where there is usually limited instruction related to vocabulary acquisition. It is assumed that students can learn vocabulary on their own. Teachers tend to emphasize the memorization of grammatical paradigms instead. Perhaps the failure of Greek students to gain reading competency can be attributed to instructional shortcomings.

In the 1990s the neglect regarding vocabulary acquisition in ESL programs began to be rectified, and research in that area proliferated. This paper makes no claim to having reviewed it all. The Vocabulary Acquisition Research Group at the University of Wales, Swansea, has an entire web site devoted to the topic.6 The site includes an extensive bibliographical archive of articles on vocabulary acquisition published from 1991 to 2001. Two books with particular insights on the subject have recently been published. James Coady and Thomas Huckin have edited a collection of fourteen essays in Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition (1997), and Norbert Schmitt has written Vocabulary in Language Teaching (2000).

1. Threshold vocabulary. Threshold vocabulary is the amount of vocabulary necessary to read authentic second language (L2) texts using first language (L1) reading strategies. Such vocabulary known by sight includes "words whose forms and common meanings are recognized automatically, regardless of context."7 Laufer agrees that the largest obstacle to good reading "is insufficient number of words in the learner's lexicon."8 After surveying the research on threshold vocabulary, she concludes that 3,000 word families, or 5,000 lexical items, are the minimum threshold necessary for passing an ESL test, regardless of how high a student's academic ability might be. These 3,000 word families enable coverage of 90-95% of any text.9 Nation and Newton affirm that learning high frequency vocabulary words provides the best return for study time invested. In fact, "the most frequent 2,000 headwords account for at least 85% of the words on any page of any book no matter what the subject matter."10

Drawing parallels with the vocabulary of only one document-the Greek NT-rather than an entire language has obvious difficulties; nevertheless, it can be instructive. The Greek NT contains 5,437 words, which fall into approximately 736 word families.11 3,246 of these words are used 3 times or less, over 500 of which are proper names that are usually transliterated and easily recognizable.12 First-year Greek students typically acquire a vocabulary of under 500 words. Mounce, for example, in his widely used textbook Basics of Biblical Greek presents students with every word used 50 times or more. He adds 6 others, thus introducing only 319 words. However, these 319 words constitute almost 80% of the total word count of the NT.13 Greek vocabulary guides typically present students with the 1,067 words used 10 times or more. By knowing these 1,067 words, the student comprehends over 90% of the total word count of the NT.