Practical guidelines for all

1.      Reading and writing Greek

It is of the highest importance, especially for weaker students, that Greek is read aloud and written as much as possible during the first month of learning the language. This may seem to slow down progress, but the rewards are immense, in accurate recognition of words and forms, in speed of learning vocabulary and general confidence in handling the language. Here are some suggestions on how to encourage reading aloud and writing.

(a)               Read out a sentence or clause, and ask the entire class to repeat it after you; then choose smaller groups to imitate you; then individuals. (On choosing between dynamic and melodic accents, see below, pp. 6—7.) Then ask them to read another sentence or clause alone, without your prompting, after they have first prepared it; finally, ask them to read aloud at sight. Always read aloud, or have read aloud (preferably by the student about to do the trans­lating), the Greek that is to be translated. The Speaking Greek CD is invaluable for practice at home in pronunciation and accentuation (partic­ularly in the first month, when special attention should be paid to Professor Langslow’s talk, on tracks 1—8 of the CD).

(b)                In the first month and periodically thereafter, students should write out in Greek, with diacritical marks, the passages they are translating, and, perhaps without diacritical marks, the exercises and their answers. These papers should be checked by the teacher for accuracy. It is astonishing what kinds of problem are revealed, and how easily they are cleared up, by this simple, though time-consuming, device.

1.        Grammar

Teach only the grammatical points which GE specifies as requiring to be learnt for any section (though of course explain any phenomenon in which a student is interested). Everything lying outside that listing is glossed in the running vocabulary and can be ignored until the time comes for it to be taught fully. Underline in your text all examples of the grammatical point(s) to be learnt for each section, so that you remember to emphasize it/them and treat it/them with special care during the reading.

Some teachers prefer to give students a fuller picture of the grammar than that specified by GE at any one time, e.g. asking students to learn all the cases at once. The Reference Grammar at the back of GE gives the full picture, and should be consulted if required.

2.       Definite article

Insist that the definite article be mastered thoroughly, by heart, at the beginning. It is used generously in RG and gives immediately the key to case, gender and number of any noun (irrespective of type) to which it is attached. This gives much help to the student when learning noun-types.

James Neville recommends encouraging the students to construct their own morphology charts, empty ‘grids’ awaiting the new forms to be inserted as they are met in the readings. Modern technology makes this very easy to do.

3.       WoA

Constant reference is made to WoA throughout these Notes.

4.        Vocabularies

Constantly check that students are learning at every point the vocabularies set to be learnt in GE. The result will be a much greater confidence in translating and a considerable saving of time.

Peter V. Jones Edward Phinn

Mainly for university teachers

It may be useful to make some general remarks about the use of RG (which could, mutatis mutandis, be extended to any reading course). RG was written on the following principles:
(1) Understanding and memorizing grammatical rules and vocabulary are the sine qua non of any language course. But a reading skill requires more than that. The feeling for sentence structure, capacity to anticipate what will come next, sensitivity to word order and so on are skills that must also be learnt if quick progress is to be made towards comprehending unadapted texts. Hence the long reading passages of RG, which not only illustrate the new grammar but also provide practice in reading continuous texts.
(2) A student can translate a text without understanding every single detail of the text in front of him/her. For example, if the student knows that the PaaiA- root means king and o defines a subject (s.) and tov an object (s.), the fact that the PaaiX- root will appear as PaaiXeoc; or PaaiAia is neither here nor there as far as meaning goes. That does not mean the student does not have to learn the declension of PaaiAeu^. That would be an absurd conclusion to draw. But it does mean he/she can meet it regularly before the declension is actually learnt. Likewise, ano means ‘away from’. One does not have to know the genitive form to be able to translate ano xov PaaiAirac; with full confidence. But that does not mean you do not at some stage have to learn it. Of course you do.
In other words, a Greek text designed for translation into English can be far more linguistically complex at an early stage - and therefore far more interesting - than one designed for translating English into Greek. Consider what you need to know to teach the rules of npw and erac; successfully in either case. But the fact that one can stay ahead of the strict details of the grammar when translating Greek into English does not absolve you from learning the rules of that grammar when the time comes. It does help to have met it on many occasions first, however. And if an enquiring student asks about the forms, there is no reason not to explain them, pointing out that they will be set for learning later on.
(3) Learning a language, especially an ancient one, makes no sense unless one has a sense of the civilization that produced it. To be given the word Kpix^c or K^pu^ and asked to translate it as ‘judge’ or ‘herald’ without context or comment is to deny meaning at the most basic level, even more so with abstracts like uPpic; or xi^n or %apic. That is why RG teaches Greek through a continuous text adapted from original sources, with constant reference to explanatory cultural and historical material in WoA. We do no justice to the ancient Greeks or their language if we do not at least try to make the Greek experience and understanding of the ancient world our students’ constant point of interaction with the language. Otherwise, learning ancient Greek becomes a moribund exercise, as if it were nothing but twenty-first-century English written in funny letters.
So while there is no doubt that RG requires the teacher to keep far more balls in the air than in most other courses, we would argue that it delivers far greater benefits, both linguistic and cultural, to our students. Even one year of RG will have given them a thorough grounding in the language, its structures and thought- patterns, while at the same time offering them a comprehensive view of what the ancient Greek world was all about through the language (however adapted) of those who actually thought and communicated in it.
Mainly for teachers of Years 11 and 12 (11—12th graders)
The considerations which face university and college teachers, sketched above, tend also to face school teachers, only usually more acutely. In the United Kingdom, this is especially the case if students begin Greek in Years 11-12. Such students, with perhaps three or more other ‘A’-levels to cope with, will be lucky to have one hour a week in their schedule for Greek. In the United States, this is especially the case if senior high-school students are studying Greek in addition to other languages and subjects in which they will take as many as four to six different College Board Achievement examinations. Because there is no College Board in Greek, students will be likely to fit Greek into the margin of their other studies (especially of Latin, in which there is a College Board); for this reason, Greek in American high schools is frequently taught during breakfast or lunch periods as an ‘overload’. Under such conditions, secondary-level students and teachers in both the UK and the USA need all the help they can get.
One way in which RG can be used in Years 11—12 or senior high school (given the staff and curricular space) is in the General (Classical) Studies course for a term, semester or even a full year. The linguistic pace of the course can be slowed right down and heavy emphasis placed on culture, history and word-derivation (WoA comes into its own here). With a modest linguistic goal in view (e.g. Sections 4 or 5), the teacher can work wonders. The same goes for Adult (Continuing) Education classes. These classes are enormously stimulating and revivifying. Adults who feel they have missed something of great value in the past and now wish to acquire it are an object lesson in determination, application and inquisitiveness. xovovxov ev tcovxec; yEvowxo ...

Basic methodology and lesson planning

The first grammar and exercise section in GE covers the Text of Section 1a-g. Consequently, the first task is to read and translate the Text of 1a-g as quickly as possible, pausing only over passages which cause difficulties, or passages which exemplify new grammatical points.
Methodological guidelines
Two general guidelines are important: (1) In GE read the grammar section for 1a-g and then in the Text underline or otherwise mark those sentences, clauses, phrases or words which illustrate those points that the grammar and exercises of 1 a-g will test. (2) Go into detail on only those grammatical points that will appear in the grammar section of GE.
Of course, if students have enquiring minds, they may want to know more about the grammar of the text they are reading. For example, the Course sets to be learnt only the nominative and accusative of nouns to start with. Genitive plurals come in Section 2, genitive singulars in Section 8 and datives in Section 9. If the students enquire about genitive and dative forms ahead of time, briefly tell them but assure them that they will cover them in full detail when the time comes. It is certainly advisable that students learn the whole paradigm of nouns and adjectives when they first meet them.
Lesson plans
A procedure for starting the Course might be as follows: Lesson 1 could cover Text 1a in class; home preparation would be to learn the learning vocabulary of 1a and prepare ahead 1 b-c; Lesson 2 could cover translation of 1 b and c, and push on into d: home preparation would consist of learning the vocabulary of 1b-d and preparing 1e-f. And so on. During translation, the grammar of 1a-g should be pointed out and reinforced, and when the text has been translated in this way and the vocabulary learnt, turn to the grammar section for 1a-g and go through it in detail with the students, ensuring that it is understood by asking questions or drilling with simple practice exercises. The grammar must then be learnt by heart.
As for drills, the teacher should assign whichever exercises in GE are judged to be necessary, supplementing these in class with brief, oral ‘transformation’, ‘substitution’ and ‘expansion’ exercises (see pp. 18-19). Finally, the teacher should set, or assign, the Test Exercise at the end of each grammar section for translation at sight (unseen).
This is a useful general pattern for daily lesson plans and can be used with most sections. For year-plans, see pp. 152-154.
Basic format of instruction
The methodology and general lesson plan suggested should not, of course, be rigidly followed, but (1) rapid reading of the Text, (2) regular vocabulary drills or quizzes, and (3) appropriate exercises in the grammar are a good format for progressing through the Course.
Year-end goals
The readings in the Text, unlike those of many other textbooks, are numerous, culturally and grammatically full, and sometimes lengthy. Accordingly, limita¬tions of instructional time may force the teacher to cut back the amount of Text which students are to cover: the teacher can either omit pararaphs entirely or translate it in class him/herself. Because presentation of new grammar effectively ends with Section 17, this section may well end the first year. But a respectable target for a class doing one year of Greek and no more would be Section 14 (Neaira).

The Teachers-' Notes to Reading Greek 2Ed

  An Independent Study Guide to Reading Greek (Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition 2008) contains notes on the text of RG, translates all of the Greek, answers the exercises in the GE volume, and contains other help and advice about how to get the best out of the course.

Speaking Greek (Cambridge University Press, 2008) is a pronunciation CD to accompany the course. It features an introduction on Pronouncing Ancient Greek, a talk by Professor David Langslow, and readings of many sections of Reading Greek: those are mentioned in the relevant parts of these Teachers ’ Notes.

The World of Athens (WoA) (Cambridge University Press, 2nd edition 2008) is a cultural and historical introduction to fifth-century Athens for the mature beginner which serves as the background book to RG. It requires no knowledge of Ancient Greek, and it will also be found useful in its own right as a thorough, lively and up-to-date appraisal of the culture and achievements of fifth-century Athens. Reference is made to this volume throughout the Teachers’ Notes and it is an essential tool in the teachers’ hands. If each student cannot have a copy, several should be available for use in the library.

A World of Heroes (WoH) (Cambridge University Press, 1979) and The Intellectual Revolution (IR) (Cambridge University Press, 1980) follow RG with selections from Homer, Herodotus and Sophocles (WoH), Thucydides, Euripides and Plato (IR). Both texts have vocabulary glossings on the facing page and are intended to help the intensive beginner to read widely in Ancient Greek.

Greek Vocabulary (GV) (Cambridge University Press, 1981) contains the total learning vocabulary of RG, WoH and IR. This is a useful learning aid in its own right but also makes WoH and IR accessible to anyone whatever introductory course he or she has completed: any words not glossed on the facing pages of these texts will be found in GV

Further JACT readers for post-beginners

The Triumph of Odysseus: Homer’s Odyssey Books 21 and 22 (Cambridge University Press, 1979) contains the complete texts of Odyssey xxi and xxii, with full facing-page vocabulary.

New Testament Greek: A Reader (Cambridge University Press, 2001) contains a representative selection with vocabulary and grammatical help.

A Greek Anthology (Cambridge University Press, 2002) contains selections from fourteen authors, both prose and verse, each with its own introduction and special vocabulary giving some linguistic help. There is a general vocabulary at the end.

Abbreviations

GE	Grammar and Exercises volume of Reading Greek
GV	Greek Vocabulary
IR	The Intellectual Revolution
RG	Reading Greek
Text	Text of Reading Greek
TV	Text and Vocabulary volume of Reading Greek
WoA	The World of Athens
WoH	A World of Heroes

The introduction to the basic methodology and lesson planning appropriate to RG (pp. 1-5) is followed by a description of the accompanying Speaking Greek CD and the two accents of Ancient Greek (pp. 6-7). Then come the bulk of the teachers’ notes to the Text of RG (pp. 8-136); and the notes on the illustrations of the Text (pp. 137-143), and on Attic vases (shapes and vase-painters). The Notes end with an appendix of verbs, nouns and adjectives for Sections 1-7 (by section), to help teachers who wish to construct their own exercises, pp. 144-151); two year-plans, by semester (pp. 152-154); and a number of different-style examination papers (pp. 155-173).

I remember the whole beginning as a succession of flights and drops

I remember the whole beginning as a succession of flights and drops, a little seesaw of the right throbs and the wrong. After rising, in town, to meet his appeal, I had at all events a couple of very bad days-- found myself doubtful again, felt indeed sure I had made a mistake. In this state of mind I spent the long hours of bumping, swinging coach that carried me to the stopping place at which I was to be met by a vehicle from the house. This convenience, I was told, had been ordered, and I found, toward the close of the June afternoon, a commodious fly in waiting for me. Driving at that hour, on a lovely day, through a country to which the summer sweetness seemed to offer me a friendly welcome, my fortitude mounted afresh and, as we turned into the avenue, encountered a reprieve that was probably but a proof of the point to which it had sunk. I suppose I had expected, or had dreaded, something so melancholy that what greeted me was a good surprise. I remember as a most pleasant impression the broad, clear front, its open windows and fresh curtains and the pair of maids looking out; I remember the lawn and the bright flowers and the crunch of my wheels on the gravel and the clustered treetops over which the rooks circled and cawed in the golden sky. The scene had a greatness that made it a different affair from my own scant home, and there immediately appeared at the door, with a little girl in her hand, a civil person who dropped me as decent a curtsy as if I had been the mistress or a distinguished visitor. I had received in Harley Street a narrower notion of the place, and that, as I recalled it, made me think the proprietor still more of a gentleman, suggested that what I was to enjoy might be something beyond his promise.

I had no drop again till the next day, for I was carried triumphantly through the following hours by my introduction to the younger of my pupils. The little girl who accompanied Mrs. Grose appeared to me on the spot a creature so charming as to make it a great fortune to have to do with her. She was the most beautiful child I had ever seen, and I afterward wondered that my employer had not told me more of her. I slept little that night-- I was too much excited; and this astonished me, too, I recollect, remained with me, adding to my sense of the liberality with which I was treated. The large, impressive room, one of the best in the house, the great state bed, as I almost felt it, the full, figured draperies, the long glasses in which, for the first time, I could see myself from head to foot, all struck me--like the extraordinary charm of my small charge--as so many things thrown in. It was thrown in as well, from the first moment, that I should get on with Mrs. Grose in a relation over which, on my way, in the coach, I fear I had rather brooded. The only thing indeed that in this early outlook might have made me shrink again was the clear circumstance of her being so glad to see me. I perceived within half an hour that she was so glad-­stout, simple, plain, clean, wholesome woman-- as to be positively on her guard against showing it too much. I wondered even then a little why she should wish not to show it, and that, with reflection, with suspicion, might of course have made me uneasy.

But it was a comfort that there could be no uneasiness in a connection with anything so beatific as the radiant image of my little girl, the vision of whose angelic beauty had probably more than anything else to do with the restlessness that, before morning, made me several times rise and wander 

So far had Douglas presented his picture when someone put a question

begin, would be back from one day to the other. There had been for the two children at first a young lady whom they had had the misfortune to lose. She had done for them quite beautifully--she was a most respectable person-- till her death, the great awkwardness of which had, precisely, left no alternative but the school for little Miles. Mrs. Grose, since then, in the way of manners and things, had done as she could for Flora; and there were, further, a cook, a housemaid, a dairywoman, an old pony, an old groom, and an old gardener, all likewise thoroughly respectable.

So far had Douglas presented his picture when someone put a question. "And what did the former governess die of?--of so much respectability?"

Our friend's answer was prompt. "That will come out. I don't anticipate."

"Excuse me--I thought that was just what you ARE doing."

"In her successor's place," I suggested, "I should have wished to learn if the office brought with it--"

"Necessary danger to life?" Douglas completed my thought. "She did wish to learn, and she did learn. You shall hear tomorrow what she learned. Meanwhile, of course, the prospect struck her as slightly grim. She was young, untried, nervous: it was a vision of serious duties and little company, of really great loneliness. She hesitated--took a couple of days to consult and consider. But the salary offered much exceeded her modest measure, and on a second interview she faced the music, she engaged." And Douglas, with this, made a pause that, for the benefit of the company,

moved me to throw in--

"The moral of which was of course the seduction exercised by the splendid young man. She succumbed to it."

He got up and, as he had done the night before, went to the fire, gave a stir to a log with his foot, then stood a moment with his back to us. "She saw him only twice."

"Yes, but that's just the beauty of her passion."

A little to my surprise, on this, Douglas turned round to me. "It WAS the beauty of it. There were others," he went on, "who hadn't succumbed. He told her frankly all his difficulty-- that for several applicants the conditions had been prohibitive. They were, somehow, simply afraid. It sounded dull--it sounded strange; and all the more so because of his main condition."

"Which was--?"

"That she should never trouble him--but never, never: neither appeal nor complain nor write about anything; only meet all questions herself, receive all moneys from his solicitor, take the whole thing over and let him alone. She promised to do this, and she mentioned to me that when, for a moment, disburdened, delighted, he held her hand, thanking her for the sacrifice, she already felt rewarded."

"But was that all her reward?" one of the ladies asked.

"She never saw him again."

"Oh!" said the lady; which, as our friend immediately left us again, was the only other word of importance contributed to the subject till, the next night, by the corner of the hearth, in the best chair, he opened the faded red cover of a thin old-fashioned gilt-edged album. The whole thing took indeed more nights than one, but on the first occasion the same lady put another question. "What is your title?"

"I haven't one."

"Oh, _I_ have!" I said. But Douglas, without heeding me, had begun to read with a fine clearness that was like a rendering to the ear of the beauty of his author's hand.

For dreadful--dreadfulness!"

"Oh, how delicious!" cried one of the women.

He took no notice of her; he looked at me, but as if, instead of me, he saw what he spoke of. "For general uncanny ugliness and horror and pain."

"Well then," I said, "just sit right down and begin."

He turned round to the fire, gave a kick to a log, watched it an instant. Then as he faced us again: "I can't begin. I shall have to send to town." There was a unanimous groan at this, and much reproach; after which, in his preoccupied way, he explained. "The story's written. It's in a locked drawer-- it has not been out for years. I could write to my man and enclose the key; he could send down the packet as he finds it." It was to me in particular that he appeared to propound this-- appeared almost to appeal for aid not to hesitate. He had broken a thickness of ice, the formation of many a winter; had had his reasons for a long silence. The others resented postponement, but it was just his scruples that charmed me. I adjured him to write by the first post and to agree with us for an early hearing; then I asked him if the experience in question had been his own. To this his answer was prompt. "Oh, thank God, no!"

"And is the record yours? You took the thing down?"

"Nothing but the impression. I took that HERE"--he tapped his heart. "I've never lost it."

"Then your manuscript--?"

"Is in old, faded ink, and in the most beautiful hand." He hung fire again. "A woman's. She has been dead these twenty years. She sent me the pages in question before she died." They were all listening now, and of course there was somebody to be arch, or at any rate to draw the inference. But if he put the inference by without a smile it was also without irritation. "She was a most charming person, but she was ten years older than I. She was my sister's governess," he quietly said. "She was the most agreeable woman I've ever known in her position; she would have been worthy of any whatever. It was long ago, and this episode was long before. I was at

Trinity, and I found her at home on my coming down the second summer. I was much there that year--it was a beautiful one; and we had, in her off- hours, some strolls and talks in the garden-- talks in which she struck me as awfully