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70 SHOFAR INNOVATIONS FOR THE "OTHER" TEACHER ZevBar-Lev Zev Bar-Lev is a faculty member at San Diego State University, where he teaches classes in Hebrew, linguistics, and computers and language. He has published articles on language teaching methods and is the author of Computer Talk for the Liberal Arts (1986). This article will describe three innovations for the teaching of Hebrew. These innovations successfully impart several skill-goals that are considered centrally important in modern language teaching but, I would argue, are by no means successfully taught in all courses, even after several years of study: (1) the ability to instantaneously recognize (comprehend) whole words in their ordinary printed form; (2) the ability to speak spontaneously and continuously in original sentences and discourses; (3) the ability to integrate grammatical and other contrasts into spontaneous speech, rather than just learn them for grammar exercises; and (4) the ability to comprehend written and spoken discourse even when it contains a proportion of unknown words (e.g., skim-reading and "skim-listening"). These skills are traditionally regarded as "advanced," e.g., associated with the third year of college study: traditionally, it is assumed that the basic grammar and vocabulary of a language must be mastered before they are attempted . (This observation applies somewhat less starkly to proficiency-oriented approaches, which generally include (1), but aim for goals (2-3) only within the limits of specific situations, thereby limiting spontaneity and originality, and ignore (4) on elementary levels.) A defining characteristic of the proposed method is, then, that it teaches these "advanced" skills from the very beginning of study-in particular, beginning with the first month of study. Of course, it teaches these skills on an elementary level. It does so with two intentions: to increase the number of students able to begin study of Hebrew; and to increase subsequent success with the skills for all students, since it is by no means the case that all thirdyear students (even the best of them) actually acquire the target skills in existing approaches (even in proficiency-oriented courses). Although both intentions would seem to be non-controversial, I realize that my formulation of the second may raise the hackles of some teachers. Volume 9, No.3 Spring 1991 71 Indeed, many teachers that I have spoken with insist that their students perform well in all skills taught, including speaking. On the other hand, most of the hundreds of students that I have spoken with just as firmly insist that they cannot speak (at least not beyond sentences that they have memorized in fixed dialogues), cannot comprehend a text without a dictionary (or perhaps even with one), and cannot recognize whole words unless and until they mentally fill in the vowels. Obviously these students have learned from "other" teachers-and it is to these "other" teachers that I therefore direct my innovations (realizing, unfortunately, that the "other" teacher is generally interested only in choosing a textbook and pacing the class to it, rather than achieving skill-goals at all). I should also note that these innovations work best on new students of Hebrew: those who have studied Hebrew before, even for several years, generallyend up, after just a few weeks, able to read and speak less well than newcomers. We will return to this interesting fact at the end. 1. "Glyphs" for Reading The first innovation to be presented, called "glyphs," has been explained in Bar-Lev (1989 and 1990a) and recognized in Brown-Azarowicz et al. as a device that students can use independently. Indeed, some students (especially young ones) have shown considerable imagination in finding their own "glyphs" in Hebrew spellings-but the glyph program provides ready-made glyphs sufficient for its own goals: over a hundred have been designed (copyright 1986), although far fewer are needed to teach the alphabet as such. Glyphs are visual puns, combining the visual appearance of printed Hebrew words with a visual representation of their meaning, e.g., in which 'king' is assigned a glyph representing a king on a throne, with a bowing subject. king on throne, with bowing subject "0 72 Other glyphs: SHOFAR WI ~ >6}. DQ~ 2 hands, person with camel with head...

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