1

1.Introduction
Ofallthethingstoapplylinguisticsto,itseemsalmostperversetotakeamodern
lookatAncientGreek.CenturiesagoancientGreekgrammariansstartedstudyingtheir
ownlanguage.LinguisticscanbarelyfunctionwithoutaheavilyAnglicizedGreek
vocabulary,e.g.
syntax,lexicon,discourseanalysis,phonology.
Ourfieldowesadebtto
Greekinitsbasicvocabulary.Iwouldliketorepaysomeofthatdebtbyapplyingmodern
discourseanalysistotextbooksofAncientGreekinordertocastlightonthemodern
pedagogyofAncientGreek.

1.1AncientGreekitself
IsAncientGreekevenonelanguage?TheGreeklanguagehasbeenspokenfrom
prehistorytothecurrentday.Evenwithinanyonetimeframe,thelanguagehasmany
dialects.ThespanofextantliteraturefromGreekantiquitystretchesfromHomer(8th
CenturyBCE)atoneendtoHellenisticGreek(6thCenturyCE)ontheotherend.This
timespanisapproximatelyequivalenttotheentirerecordedhistoryoftheEnglish
language.BoththetimespanandmultipledialectsaffecthowbookspresentAncient
Greek.Toavoidconfusion,thisstudyusesthetermAncientGreekasagenericcatchall
foreverythingfromHomertoHellenisticGreek.
GreekisanIndoEuropeanlanguagethathasbeenspokeninareasnearGreece
sinceatleastthe14thCenturyBCE.Despitethecenturiesbetweenthenandnow,
AncientGreekismoresimilartomodernGreekthanOldEnglishistomodernEnglish
(Comrieetal.,1996:43).ItsalphabetwasadaptedfromPhoeniciansourcesandhasbeen

inusefromthe8thcenturyBCEtothepresentdayforalldialectsandtimeperiods
(Comrieetal.,1996:183).Thespeakersofthelanguage,bothancientandmodernhavea
strongidentityofwhoisGreekandwhoisnot.TheancientGreeksusedtheword
barbaros
()todescribeallnonGreekspeakersasthepeoplewhosay
barbarbar.
Despiteacommonliteraryandculturalhistory,AncientGreekwasnotatallone
singlelanguage.Eachcitystatehadauniquedialectthatfellintooneoffivemain
dialects:AtticIonic,ArcadoCyprian,Aeolic,DoricandNorthwestern(Thomson,1966:
32).Fromoutofthesearosevariousliterarydialects,whichareofparticularinterestin
thisstudysincetheliterarylanguageisthelanguagepreservedforstudyandthusthe
languagepresentedintextbooks,theKoinedialectarose.Itisworthnotingthatspeakers
ofonedialectmaywriteinanotherdialect.TheEpicdialectofthe
Iliad
and
Odyssey
(amongothers)isbasedonAeolicandArcadoCyprianbuthasalsoadeepseatedIonic
elementwithasuperficialadmixureofAttic(Thompson,1966:33).Sonotonlyisita
languagewithmanydialects,butthesedialectsarealsopreservedinthesurviving
literatureandeachisworthofhavingspecificgenresdevotedtoit.

1.2Aclassicallanguageindanger?
TheconsensusamongclassicistsisthatstudyofAncientGreekisintrouble.
Thecurrentcrisis[inthestudyofAncientGreek]isinsteadsystemicandnationwide,
theproductofanumberofinterrelatedfactorssuchasincreasedextracurricularpressure

onstudentsandanappallingdeclineinstudyskillsandoverallliteracy(Kitchelletal.,
1996:401).Theskyisfalling.
Worseyet,someclassicistsareverypessimisticabouttheabilityofstudentsto
learnAncientGreekontheirown.ThefirstwordsonStephenTrzaskomaswebpageare,
What,areyounuts?(2002).WhileProf.Trzaskomadoesgoontoexplainhowitcan
bedoneandthathefeelsthatthesuccessrateisabout5%,thetoneissetfromthe
beginning.Itishard.Giveuphope.ThetaskoflearningAncientGreekisbestdoneina
classroom,whichyouwillnotbeabletofindwithoutsomededication.
IfthestudyofAncientGreekisindangerofdisappearingintheEnglishspeaking
world,itisnotthelanguagethatistheproblem.Sourcesofthisdangerofdisappearance
mightincludetheteachersorthetoolsavailabletoteachersandstudents,butnotthe
languageitself.Giventhatsomestudentsstudyontheirown,thestudyofsomeofthe
resourcesavailabletouscouldprovideinsightintotheproblem.

1.3Whataretherighttoolstohelpthecrisis?
TextbookswillnotchangethecourseofAncientGreekstudiesmuchonewayor
theother.Itisultimatelygoingtocomedowntostudentsbeinginterested,professors
beingavailabletoteachandadministrationswillingtomakeclassesavailable.The
textbookismerelyatoolwithintheclass,nonethelessitisaveryvisibletoolwithinthe
studyofAncientGreek.
Whileagreattextbookisanotmagicbullet,itwillcertainlynotdeterstudents
fromeitherbeginningorcontinuingstudy.Thecentralquestionthatanytextbookneeds
toansweristhis:

1.4DoesitaccuratelyreflectAncientGreeksocietyandlanguage?
Ultimately,ausabletextbookneedstoanswerthisquestionwithyes.Ifthebook
providesafaultyperspectiveonthelanguage,studentswillnotsuccessfullytransitionto
readingtheoriginalliterature.IfthebookprovidesafaultyperspectiveonAncientGreek
society,studentsmightnothavetheculturalframetounderstandwhattheyarereading.
Inbothcases,thebookinmanywaysisthefinalauthorityonthelanguageandculture
beingtaught,particularlyforclassicallanguages.Whilethereverseisnotnecessarily
true,attheleastatextbookthataccuratelyreflectsAncientGreeksocietyandlanguage
willnothinderastudent.
Thisquestioncanbeanalyzedfromtwoangles.Thefirstisthroughastudyofthe
vocabularythebookuses.Foronething,itiseasytocountwords.Foranother,itis
relativelyconcrete.Whileanystudentacquiringasecondlanguagewillbelearning
wordsinthenewlanguage,thesewordsshouldaccuratelyreflectthelanguage.Students
shouldlearnthecommonwordsfirst.Theotherangleofanalysisislookingathowthe
bookusesitsnarrativetobuildapictureofGreeksocietyinantiquity.
Theotherangleisfromadiscourseanalysisperspective.Thisperspectiveallows
forustoexaminehowthetextbookexistswithinthecontextofthelargerworldandhow
itpresentsthecontextofthelanguageandsocietyofancientGreece.Withinthe
discourseanalysis,Iparticularlywanttolookathowthebookspositionthemselvesin
regardtothestudentsandhowthebookspositionGreeksocietytothestudents.

2.LiteratureReview
2.1Positioning
Asmatterofcourse,participantsinaconversationarealwaysbuildingidentities
foreachotherandthemselves.Thisidentitybuildingiscalledpositioning,whichDavies
andHarrdescribethisway:
Positioning,aswewilluseitisthediscursiveprocesswherebyselvesarelocated
inconversationsasobservablyandsubjectivelycoherentparticipantsinjointly
producedstorylines.Therecanbeinteractivepositioninginwhichwhatone
personsayspositionsanother.Andtherecanbereflexivepositioninginwhich
onepositionsoneself.Howeveritwouldbeamistaketoassumethat,ineither
case,positioningisnecessarilyintentional.Onelivesone'slifeintermsofone's
ongoinglyproducedself,whoevermightberesponsibleforitsproduction
(1990/2014:7).

Twothingsjumpout.Firstandforemost,wepositionourselvesandothersonanongoing
basiseitherwithor
without
intention.Wedoitwhetherwemeantoornot.Theotheritem
isthatitisinconversation.
Textbooks
,
whilenotaconversationwithinthedailyusesenseoftheword,area
conversationinsofarasabookistheauthorstooltohaveaonewayconversation.1
Whilethebooksauthororbyextensionthebookpositionsthereader,thereader
cannotaffectthepositionoftheauthororbook.Intermsofpositioning,thetextbook
cannotbepositionedbythestudenteventhoughthetextbookpositionsthestudent
dynamicwaystartingwithapositionofinexperienceanddevelopingtoapositionof
greaterexperience.
1

Anotherwayofputtingit:
BecauseIviewthebooksIvereadasconversationpartners,andbecauseIview
manyoftheirauthorsasfriends,Ihaveahabitofinvitingthemintoconversationswithmyphysicallypresent
friends.AllisonGrady,

http://ccsummerresearch.blogs.wm.edu/forthebloggers/

Sohowdothetextbookauthorsaffectposition?DaviesandHarrmakeitclear
thatpositioningneednotbeverbal,thoughtheverbalisonecomponent.Infact,the
wordsthespeakerchoosesinevitablycontainimagesandmetaphorswhichbothassume
andinvokethewaysofbeingthattheparticipantstakethemselvestobeinvolvedin
(DaviesandHarr,1990/2014:8).Theseimagesandmetaphorspushthespeakerand
listenerintorolesinmanyways.IfIamaddressedasdude,thespeakerispositioning
memuchdifferentlythanaspeakerwhoaddressesmeasMr.Sipesandevenmore
differentlythanthespeakerwhoaddressesmeasSir.Thefirstspeakerpositionsmeas
afriendwhosharescertainidentitypointswithme,thesecondamoredistant
relationshipthoughstillcloseenoughthatthespeakerknowsmynameandthethird,
perhaps,acompletestranger.Butaddressformsarenottheonlywaypositioning
happens.IfIwalkintoaprintshop,IpositionmyselfmuchdifferentlyifIsayIwant
thistobeincolor,thanifIsayThiswillbetwocolor:blackandPantone183224.2
Thefirststatementpositionsmeasaninexperiencedprintbuyer.Theotherpositionsme
asaninsider,beIprinterordesigner.
Inadditiontotheseroles,thetextcanpositionthereaderasoutsidelookinginby
howthereaderpercieves[
sic
]thenarratorand/orauthortobepositioningthem(as
reader)oritmaybecreatedbythereader'sperceptionofthecharactersthemselves
(DaviesandHarr,1990/2014:10).
Whoelsewillthetextbookspositionandhow?DavisandHarrnotethatone
speakercanpositionothersbyadoptingastorylinewhichincorporatesaparticular

RadiantOrchid,Pantones2014coloroftheyear.
http://www.pantone.com/pages/index.aspx?pg=21129

interpretationofculturalstereotypes(1990/2014:10).Thispointiscritical,asthe
textbooksareintroducingalanguageandculturethatarenewtothestudent.At
minimum,thetextbookpositionsitselfasaculturalandlinguisticauthority.

2.2Ideology
Sincethebookpresentsitselfasaculturalandlinguisticauthority,weshouldask
questionsaboutwhatthebookspresent.Onewaytodoaskthosequestionsisthrough
examiningtheideology,becauseideologyprovidesthebasicframeworkfororganizing
thesocialcognitionssharedbymembersofsocialgroups,organizationsorinstitutions
(VanDijk,1995:178).Ofcourse,mentioningsocialcognitionmeansitneedsdefinition,
whichVanDijkneatlydoesforus.Socialcognitionis,here,definedasthesystemof
mentalrepresentationsandprocessesofgroupmembers(VanDijk,1995a:18).Put
anotherway,socialcognitionistheversionofcultureheldinapersonshead.Since
cultureandsocietycannotspeakandonlyindividualscan,weneedatheoretical
interfacewherethesocialandthediscursivecanmeetandbeexplicitlyrelatedtoeach
other.Onecandidateforthisinterfaceissituatedsocialinteractionitself(VanDijk,
1995b:136).AncientGreekprovidesauniqueproblem:unlikeotherclassicallanguages
(e.g.LatinorSanskrit),itisbarelyusedasaspokenlanguage,ifatall,andthushasno
contemporarycultureattachedtoit.ForpracticalpurposesthereisnosocietyofAncient
Greekspeakers,sowhatsocialinteractionthereexistsbetweenspeakerandlistenerisvia
writingandisonewayfromwritertoreader.Evensotherestillaresystemsofmental
representationandprocessoccurring,bothinoriginaltextsandintextbooks,solongas
weareawarethatitisonewayonly.Weshouldkeepinmindthoughthattheoneway

natureofthiscommunicationstillallowsforanexplorationofideology.Ideologies
defineandexplainthesimilaritiesofthesocialpracticesofsocialmembers,butour
theoreticalframeworkatthesametimeaccountsforindividualvariation(VanDijk,
1995a:21).OneoftheappealstoVanDijksapproachisthatheassignsideology
productionandreceptiontoallmembersofsocietyandhe

doesnotlabelideologiesas
negativeorfalsebecauseideologyismerelyasystemofideas(VanDijk,1995b:139).
VanDijkoutlinesthreelevelsofideologicalanalysissocialanalysis,cognitive
analysisanddiscourseanalysis(VanDijk,1995a:20).Thesethreelevelsofanalysiswill
beexploredinthestudysection.

2.3AuthorityinSLAtextbooks
Sincetextbookspresentmaterial,theypositionthemselves(ortheauthorsposition
thebookifyoudislikeanthropomorphism)asauthoritiesonthetopicofinstruction.
Howeverthebookisnottheonlyauthorityinvolvedinthesecondlanguageclassroom.
Theotherauthorityistheteacher.Whenateacherisallowedtochoosethetextbook,the
teachercanbecastasanequalauthoritytothetextbook(Dendrinos,1992:3233).This
qualificationaboutteacherauthorityisimportant,sincetherearesituationswhere
teachersarenotallowedtochoosetheirowntextbook.Whenintheclassroom,thetext
andteachercanbeseenasasingle,unifiedauthority(Dendrinos,1992:32).Sincethis
studylooksatthetextbooks,theroleoftheteacher,whileimportant,canbemore
variablethancanpossiblyaccountedforinthisstudy.

Giventhenarrowrangeoftextbooksavailable,3onecouldarguethattheteacher
ofAncientGreekisliketeachersinareaswheretextbookselectioniseitherverylimited
ormandated.IshallnotargueonewayortheotherthantonotethatteachersofAncient
Greekhoweverarefreetochoosethetextbooktheyuseinclass,andcertainlystudents
whoarelearningontheirownarelikewisefree.
Inanycase,thetextbookhasinherentauthority.Duetothetextbookspositionin
theclassroom,itcanbeunderstoodasthelegitimateversionofasocietyssound
knowledgetheknowledgethateverypupilhasaprimaryresponsibilitytomaster
(Dendrinos,1992:27).Thisauthoritythroughpositioningisdoublytrueofthesocial
knowledgeinAncientGreece,asnostudentcanseethatsocietydirectlyasastudentof
anylivinglanguagemaydo.
Beyondtheinherentauthorityinthetextbook,Dendrinosalsomakesclearthat
secondlanguagetextbookscarryauthoritybyvirtueofhavingcontentthatisrelatedto
othersocialinstitutionsoutsidetheschoolortheclassroom(1992:47)onaccountofthe
factthatmanysecondlanguagetextbooksdrawtheirmaterialfromthelanguageunder
study.SinceDendrinosislookingspecificallyatEnglishlanguagetextbooks,sheargues
thattheyalsoderivetheirauthorityfromtwofacts.One:Englishisaprestigelanguage
withmanyspeakers.Two:Thebooksaretheproductofaforeignculturethatboththe
studentsandtheteacherare,insomedegreeoranother,ignorantof(1992:48).These
factsdonotjustapplytoEnglish.TheyapplytoAncientGreekaswell.AncientGreek
mightevenbethequeenofprestigelanguagesintheWest,sinceithasoccupieda

WhilethereareseveraltextbooksavailableforAncientGreek,thenumberpalesincomparisontoEFLtexts.

10

prestigepositionfromthe1stcenturyBCE.4Thematerialsalsofocusonaculturethatis
foreignand,nottobelaborthepoint,unavailabletoeitherthestudentsorteachers.

2.4ExtensivereadingandSLA
ExtensiveReading(ER)isamethodoflanguagelearningthatemploys
widerangingreadingsgradedtostudentabilitythatindicatesgenerallanguagegains
(Horst,2005).StudieshaveshownthatERcanboostvocabulary,butHorstsresearch
lookstomakebettermeasurementsofvocabularylearning.
Forherresearch,Horstbuiltalibraryofscannedgradedreaders.Sinceittook
morethanthreehourstoscansomeofthelongerbooks,shedecidedtosetalowerlimit
ofscanningtothefirsttwentypagesofeachreader.Intheend,shehadseventytitlesin
thelibraryofreadersavailabletostudyparticipants.Thirtyreadershadmorethantwenty
pages,andasaresulthadsomewherebetween18%and100%ofthetextscanned.She
thengavetwotestsof100wordseachtoESLstudents.Onewasoverwordsinthe
1,0012,000frequencyrange.Theotherwasonlowfrequencywordstoseewhatthe
studentslevelofvocabularywasatthebeginningofthestudy.
Studentswerethenallowedtoreadthelibraryofscannedreadersforsixweeks.
Sincethestudentsreadingwastracked,Horstknewexactlywhatlowfrequencywords
eachstudenthadseeninthecourseoftheirER.Additionally,sinceshewasnotdirecting
studentreadingselections,eachstudentsinterestdirectedthereading.Whiletherewasa
gooddealofvariation,themeannumberofbooksreadwas10.52booksoversixweeks.

IfyoutellnonspecialistsyouknowAncientGreek,theyalwaysseemsuitablyimpressedathowdifficultit
is.

11

Attheendofthesixweeks,asecondtestof100wordswasgiventoeachstudent,but
thistimethewordswerecustomizedtothestudentsreading.Thestudybeganwith21
studentsandfinishedwith17students.
Horstfoundthat,despiteearlierconcernsabouttestlength,studentscompleted
thepreandposttestinlittletime.Moreimportantly,thestudentsshowedimpressive
gains.

Pretest

Posttest

Difference

41.35

47.94

6.59

SD

5.38

1.89

5.47

t=5.47
p
<.001
Figure2.1:1,0012,000wordsratedYESof50wordstotal(n=17),adaptedfrom(Horst,
2005).

Pretest

Posttest

Difference

33.80

43.59

10.29

SD

8.18

4.30

7.62

t=5.47
p
<.001
Figure2.2:OfflistwordsratedYESof50wordstotal(n=17),adaptedfrom(Horst,
2005).
Ascanbeseen,studentspickedupanaverage6.59wordsinthe1,0012,000
rangeand10.29wordsinthelowfrequencylist.Thisamountisaboutdoubletotriplethe
numberofwordslearnedinmostpreviousstudies(see
Horsttable2
).Thesestudies
indicatedvocabularygainswithER(Ferris,1998Pitts,White&Krashen,1989inter
alia),butHorstfeltthatthesestudiesneithertestedenoughwordsnorincludedenough

12

reading,whetherstudentselectedornot.
OneofHorstscritiquesofresearchwithESLstudentsinspokenlanguage,
communicativebasedclassroomsisthatstudentsfindveryfewwordsnotfoundonlists
ofthemostfrequentEnglishwordfamilies(Meara,Lightbown,&Halter,1997).(2005).
Ofcourse,insecondlanguageacquisitionwedowantstudentstolearnthesewords.

2.5HighfrequencyGreekwords
MajorprovidesaplacetolookforthosewordsinAncientGreek.Hetellsusthat
Greekisatypical,butinausefulway.65orfewerlemmasgeneratehalfof[allextant
Ancient]Greektexts(2007:94).Alemmaisnormallydefinedasacollectionofallthe
inflectedforms(i.e.,allthedifferenttypes)ofwhatis,conceptually,asingleword
(Hanks,2013:26).SothismeansallofthevariousinflectedformsoftheverbFIGHT,
like
fight,fights,fighting
and
fought,
areallonelemma.Hanksraisestheissueofwhether
thenounlemmaFIGHTandtheverblemmaFIGHTarethesamelemmaornot(2013:
2628).HankssconsiderationofthisproblemmaybeimportantforEnglishsincewe
havethenoun/verbpairslikeFIGHT,butinAncientGreekthisproblemisvirtually
nonexistentsinceverbsandnounsdonothaveoverlappingmorphology.Inmore
ordinaryterms,lemmasaredictionaryentries,and65orfeweraccountfor50%ofa
givenAncientGreektext.
Bycomparison,Englishreaches53%coveragewith100words(Chujoand
Utiyama,2005:7).Toreachthe80%coveragethresholdGreekrequiresbetween1000
and1100words,lessthanhalfofthestandard20003000formanylanguages(Major,

13

2007:94).5
ThissmallernumberofwordstomasterisgoodnewsforstudentsofAncient
Greek.Theproblemthatstillfacesthesestudentsisthattheyneedtolearnthewords.It
takesbetweeneightandtenexposurestoawordforlearnerstoassignmeaningtoaword
inincidentalwordlearning(Schmitt,2010:2723).Asaresult,extensivereadingmaybe
onewaytosolvethatproblem.

2.6LowerfrequencyGreekwords
KnowingMajors1,100wordlistforcoveragedoesnotaidastudentinreading
Greekliteratureforpleasureorstudy,whichisthepurportedaimofthetexts.Infact,an
80%coveragedoesnotallowanyonetogainproperreadingcomprehensioninany
language(Nation,2006:61).Inordertogettoalevelofreadingatwhichreaderscan
comprehend,researcherssuggestthatastudentneedstogetto95to98%coverageofa
text(Chujo&Utiyama,2005:2).
Beforemovingon,aconcreteexampleisinorder.UsingthePerseusProjects
GreekVocabularyTool,Platos
Republic,
book1,Ifoundthefollowingvocabularydata.
SincetheGreekVocabularyToolisautomated,ittreatsambiguousformsinastatistical
wayratherthaninadefiniteway.6Withthatdisclaimer,herearethedata.

BothofMajorslistscanbefoundhere:
https://camws.org/cpl/cplonline/files/Majorcplonline.pdf
Theexactmethodologyforthestatisticalbreakdownishere:
http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/help/vocab#wft
6

14

Coverage
%

Tokens

Lemmas

Note

50%

4,637

53

ShorterthanMajorsshortlistof65

80%

7,419

304

95%

8,810

972

StillnotaslongasMajors80%list

98%

9,088

1,276

100%

9,274

1,753

Figure2.3:VocabularyanalysisofRepublic,Book1forcoverageandlemmas(Perseus,
2014).
Obviously,thelistsaregoingtobesomewhatshorterifwecaneliminate
ambiguousforms,butthisanalysisshouldgetusintotheneighborhoodofwhatastudent
needstoknowtoreadwithfluency.Intermsofvocabulary,foranyoneselectedtext,the
barisrelativelylow.1,276lemmasareneededfor98%coverage1,753forfullcoverage.
Bycomparison,EuropeanstudentsofvariouslanguageswhohavestudiedtotheC2level
ofcompetence7havevocabulariesrangingfrom3,300to4,000words(Milton&Alexiou,
2009).Allofthisdiscussionaboutthenumberofwordstoachieveahighskilllevelina
secondlanguageistosaythatthevocabularyproblempresentedtostudentsofAncient
Greekisnotinsurmountable.
Whilestudentsneedtolearnalargenumberofwordstogainskillwithina
language,thewordstheycouldlearnarenotallequal.Someoccurmuchmorefrequently
thanothers.Howdowedistinguishhighfromlowfrequencywords?Thecorpuscomes
7

CEFRtestscomeinsixlevels,fromlowesttohighest:A1,A2,B1,B2,C1,C2.Tocompare,aTOEFLiBT
scoreof61isrequiredforundergraduateadmissionatNEIU,thelowendofB1.

15

totherescue.Acorpusisalarge,principledcollectionofnaturallyoccurringtextsthat
arestoredelectronically(Conrad&LeVelle,2008:540).WhileMajordoesnotmention
anyuseofacorpusinhisstudyofhighfrequencywordsinAncientGreek,doubtlesshe
usedonetocompilehislist.Whileteachershavereportedadvantagestousing
corpusbasedtechniquesintheclassroom,ConradandLeVelleadmitthattherehasbeen
toolittleempiricalstudyintotheactualadvantagesofthesetechniques(Conrad&
LeVelle,2008:548).Ofcourse,ignoringcorpusdatainSLAwouldmakeusalsoignore
worklikeMajorsstudy.Italsowouldleadusawayfromdatadrivenevidenceforour
ownintuitionsofwordfrequencylikethoseintuitionsreportedbySchmittandDunham
(1999).
Iamtakingtimetomakethispointaboutlexiconclearbecauselanguage
learnersareseriouslyimpairedbyexcessiveconcentrationonteachinggrammarrather
thanlexis(Hanks,2013:424).Thisstatementiscertainlytrueofalanguagewhereone
caseislistedashavingfiveprimaryuses(GVE,1992:102103)andthengivesamore
nuancedaccountofthatcaseinthereferencegrammarthatspreadsoverthreepages
(GVE,1992:323325).Worse,someclassicistsperceivethatsametextbookashavinga
fragmentedapproachtopresentinggrammarwhichisaproblemforsomestudents
(Kitchelletal.,1996:398).SotosuggestthatSLAtheoryofanysortismakingittothe
actualteachersofAncientGreekwouldbeastretch,basedontheKitchelletal.article,
whichechoestheattitudesofmanypeopleIhavespokentointhecourseofmy
experiencewithLatinandAncientGreek.8

Whileatthesametimerecognizingthatanecdoteisntdata.

16

2.7LanguageSocialization
Thesocialangleoflanguagedeservesspecialattention,especiallyinlightofthe
difficultiesthatdeadlanguagespresentwiththispartoflanguage.Firstandforemost,
thereisnonativespeakerpopulationanywhere.Thisabsencepresentsproblemsforan
aspectofSLAknownasLanguageSocialization(LS).
Whileallculturesvaryinthedetailsofhow,inallsocietiesstudiedtodate
speakersaccommodatetolanguageacquiringchildreninsomefashion(WatsonGegeo
&Nielsen,2005:158).ThesameistrueforL2learnersoutsideofaclassroom.Native
speakersadapttheirlanguagewhenaddressinglessproficientnonnativespeakers(Gass,
2005:230).Ofcourse,neitheroftheseaspectsarepresentwithAncientGreek.
AlthoughWatsonGegeopointsoutthatthereisnostructureinthebrain[that]
correspondstotheLanguageAcquisitionDevice(WatsonGegeo,2004:332)foreither
firstorsecondlanguage,shemakesclearthatlanguagestructure,languageuse,and
languageacquisitionareinseparablebecauseexperienceshapesallourneuralnetworks
(WatsonGegeo,2004:333).Thiscombinationoffactsisimportant.Ittellsusthat
languageisnotinbornbutratherisapartofoursocialdevelopment,perhapsnotjust
languagebutmoregenerallylearning.
Situatedlearning
referstomorethantheideathat
learningtakesplacesomewhereandthroughdoing,orthatthemeaningofactivity
dependsonsocialcontext(WatsonGegeo,2004:338).Thissocialcontextgetstothe
heartofLanguageSocialization.Languageisnotjustacognitivephenomenonbuta
socialphenomenon.ThissocialaspectpresentsmajorproblemsforAncientGreek,which
willbeapparentinsomeofthetextbooks.

17

ThequestionIwanttoinvestigateisthefollowing:howdothetextbooksinthis
studyusetheirauthority?Impliedwithinthisquestionisthematterofhowthetextbooks
usetheirauthoritytocreateanaccuratepictureofbothlanguageandsocietyinancient
Greece.

18

3.Methodology
ThisthesisexploresthreeparticularAncientGreektextbooks.Thereasonfortheir
inclusioninthisstudyisthattheyarecategoricallydifferentfromthemajorityofother
AncientGreektextbooks:theyhaveconnectednarrativereadingsfromtheearlieststages
oftheinstruction.
ThesethreetextsaretheJointAssociationofClassicalTeachers
ReadingGreek,
BalmeandLawalls
Athenaze,
andSaffireandFriess
AncientGreekAlive.
Sincethese
threetextbooksemployconnectednarrativereadingsfromthebeginning,theyprovidea
sharplydifferingpictureofancientGreeklanguageandculturethanbooksthatdonot
employconnectednarrativereadings.TherearemanytextsforEnglishspeakingstudents
tolearnAncientGreekineitherinstitutionalorindividualsettings,butthesethree,in
additiontotheirnarrativereadings,arealsowidelyavailableforstudentsin
Englishspeakingcountries.

3.1Whatsetsthesethreeapart
Thedifferenceisapparentinthefirstlessons.Thefollowingchartexaminesthe
threetextbooksunderstudyaswellasMastronardes
IntroductiontoAtticGreek
,
Grotons
FromAlphatoOmega
andSeligsons
GreekforReading
.

19
Feature

Mastronarde

Groton

Seligson

AGAlive

JACT

Athenaze

Booklength

x+425(42)

xii+506(50)

xxx+325(31)

xxiv+271
(54)

x+366
(Grammar)
xvi+182
(Text)(19)

xii+270(16)

Pages
covering
alphabet

621

112

xixxxvii

46

13(G)

viix

Chapters

<1

<1

<1

<1

Firstword
page(chapter)

28(3)

18(3)

4(1)

1(0)

3(1)

2(1)

Location/
presentationof
firstvocab

List

List

Basic
sentences,list

Dialog

Vocabulary
forReading

List(tiedto
Reading)

1sr
consecutive
words
page(chapter)

41(6)
inextensive
examples

19(3)

4(1)

1(0)

3(1)

3(1)

Firstsentence
page(chapter)

62(8)

19(3)

4(1)

1(0)

3(1)

3(1)

First
sequential
sentences
page(chapter)

119(16)

32(5)

76(7)

1(0)

3(1)

3(1)

Firstnarrative
page(chapter)

168(22)

7(1)32(5)9

191(19)

13(0)

2(1)

3(1)

First
unadapted
page(chapter)

258(33)

32(5) 10none

4(1)

209(51) 11

14(2)

177(14)

Figure3.1:ComparisonofsixAncientGreektexts
Inmanyways,thebooksareallidiosyncratic,butonemajordivideexists
betweenthem.InonesetoftextsMastronarde,GrotonandSeligsonthedistance
betweenthefirstappearanceofGreekwordsandtheirfirstappearanceinconnected

Theparagraphonp.7ispresentedtogivestudentspracticewithtransliteratingthealphabetasopposedto
derivingmeaninginGreek,nonethelessitisrunningtext.
10
Aesops
Fables
arereallytricky.TheyvebeenusedfortextbookGreekforcenturiesandmayhavebeen
writtenatalatertimefordidacticpurposesratherthanbeingoriginaltoantiquity.Thesecondselectionhereis
originaltoantiquity.
11
SaffireandFriesmentionintheLesson50passagethatitistimetomoveontounadaptedGreek.Thefirst
bitoftheThesaurusiskeyedtoLesson6.

20

narrativeismuchlargerthanintheothersetoftexts\
JACT,Athenaze
and
Ancient
GreekAlive
whichhavenosuchdisjunctionbetweentheappearanceofGreekwords
andusingtheminnarrative.
Andtheuseofconnectednarrativeispowerful,becauseitgivescontext.Infact,
fromaLanguageSocializationanglethereisnodecontextualized,neutralenvironment:
Everythingoccursinandisshapedbycontext(WatsonGegeo,2004:338).Threeofthe
booksprovidecontextforthelanguagefromtheverybeginning.Thatfactsets
Ancient
GreekAlive,Athenaze
and
JACT
inafullydifferentcategoryoflearningtool.

3.2Whatmakesthemthesame
Thereisoneaspectthatbindsthebookstogether,anditisinextricablefromthe
AncientGreeklanguagebeingtaughtinthem.Thataspectisanapproachtothelanguage
teachingthatBessieDendrinosidentifiesasClassicalHumanism.
Doubtless,anyoftheauthorsofthebookslistedabovewouldembraceorat
leastnotrejectthelabelClassicalHumanism,astheacademicstudyofAncientGreek
fallsundertheumbrellaoftheClassics.Thebookidentifiedas
JACT
isevenproducedby
theBritishgroupcalledtheJointAssociationofClassicalTeachers.Dendrinosdescribes
ClassicalHumanismascharacterizedbythedesiretopromotebroadintellectual
capacities,suchasmemorizationandtheabilitytoanalyze,classify,andreconstruct
elementsofknowledge.(1992:104).Noneoftheseareobjectionablethingsinandof
themselves,thoughitwouldhelptoknowwhatknowledgeweareaimingat.
Knowledgeisconsideredtobeasetoftruthswhichshouldberevealedbytheauthority
(teacherortextbook)andmasteredbythepupil(Dendrinos,1992:104).Andthissetof

21

truthscanbeseendirectlyinsectionheadingsof
JACT
.Eachsectionexplicitlylabels
whichliterarysourcesarebeingusedforthetext.Forexample,onp.7ofthe
JACT
text
thebooklistsThucydidess
Histories
2.1317,5151,6667and3.83asaoneofthe
sourcesforthereading(Text,1992).
Oneofthedefiningfeaturesofeachofthesebooksisthateachchapterfeaturesa
narrativereadingthechaptersarearrangedinanorderlywaytogivestructureto
students.InoneClassicalHumanistapproach,theCognitiveApproach,itiscommonfor
everyunittostartoutwithareadingpassageconstructedtoputondisplaythenew
structuralelementstobedealtwith(Dendrinos,1992:109).
Athenaze
issetupthisway.
TheotherClassicalHumanistapproachthatDendrinosoutlinesisthe
GrammarTranslationmethod.Inthiscase,thegrammarteachingisdoneandthena
passagefortranslationispresentedforstudents(1999:106).
AncientGreekAlive
features
thisorganizationmethodoncethestudentsarepastthescriptedorallessonsatthe
beginning,thoughtheorallessonsfromthebeginningaredecidedlynotpartofthe
GrammarTranslationmethod.Whatsets
JACT
apartfromeachofthesetextbooksisthat
thegrammarinstructionandthenarrativesareinseparatebooks.Theresultisthat
teachersmayuseeitheraCognitiveApproachoraGrammarTranslationApproach.
Thenextchapterofthisstudyexaminesthespecificwayseachbooktakesup
ClassicalHumanism.

22

3.3Whatmakesallofthemdifferentfromothersecondlanguage
textbooks
AncientGreektextbooksaregoingtobedifferentfrommanyothertextbooksthat
teachasecondlanguageforthesimplereasonthatnoone12expectsstudentstogain
conversationalmasteryoveradeadlanguage.
Inanoddcoincidenceoftextbookpublishing,AncientGreektextbooksarelike
Englishasaforeignlanguage(EFL)textbooksinonespecificway.TheEFLtextbookis
notonlyfrequentlyauthoredbynonlocals,butpublishedbylargemultinational
companieswhoaddressaglobalmarket(Dendrinos,1992:40).Liketheir
Englishlanguagecounterparts,someAncientGreektextbooksarepublishedby
multinationalcompanies(
JACT
byCambridgeUniversityPressand
Athenaze
byOxford
UniversityPress)whileothersaremostlythedomainofsmalleruniversitypresses
(
AncientGreekAlive
byUNCPress).Inabsolutelyeverycase,thebooksarewrittenby
authorswhoarenotlocaltotheculturepresentedinthebook.WhileDendrinosmeans
nonlocalinthesenseofauthorswholiveincountrieswherethetextbookarenotused,
nonlocalcanmorebroadlyimplypeoplewhoarenativestoneitherthetextbooks
languagenoritsculture.
EventhoughIusethetermnonlocalinawaydifferentfromDendrinos,thereis
effectivelynodifferenceinthoseuses.Bothusesimplythatthereissomeremove

12

ChristopheRicoisaninterestingexceptiontothis.Sadly,hisbookisinFrenchwhereveritdoesnotuse
KoineGreek.MyFrenchisnotuptothetaskofincludingitinthisstudy.

23

betweenthestudentsandthetextbook.Thetwowaysofremovingthestudentsfromthe
textbooksareillustratedinfigure3.2.

NonlocalinDendrinos

Nonlocalinthisstudy

Figure3.2:Twoaxesofnonlocalityinsecondlanguagetextbooks
ForDendrinos,theauthorsareremovedfromthetextbooksusers,asseenonthe
leftsideoffigure3.2.Authorsandtextbookusersarefromdifferentculturesand
thereforehaveamajorflaw,whichisthattheneeds,theexpectationsandthe
background(sociocultural,educational,linguisticandsociolinguistic)ofspecificgroups
oflearnersandteacherscannotbetakenintoaccount(Dendrinos,1992:41).Forthis
study,theremoveisbetweentheauthorsandtheoriginalculture,asseenontherightside
offigure3.2.Whiletheauthorsmaybeabletotakesomeoftheexpectationsand
backgroundsoflearnersintoaccount,theyareattemptingtodosowithaculturethatthey
arenotnativetoandcannotvisit(beyondmuseumsandarchaeologicalsites).Another
issuerelatedtononlocalitythatDendrinosbringsupisthatEFLtextbooksand
presumablysecondlanguagetextbooksgenerallyarefrequentlyseenaspoor
compromisesbetweenwhatiseducationallydesirableandwhatisfinanciallyviable

24

(1992:42).Oneguisethiscompromisecantakeisinillustrationsinthetextbook.While
mostEFLtextbooksarewellillustrated,AncientGreektextbooksarenotbycomparison,
which,asDendrinospointsout,failstotakestudentneeds(i.e.learningstyles)into
account.Whatisworseisthat[publishers]arenotalwaysawareofthepedagogical
implicationsofcurrenttheoryandresearchinlinguisticsandlanguagelearning
(Sheldon,1988:239).Sheldonscriticismisdoublytrueforbookspublishedbysmall
publishers,andIwilltakeuphercriticismoftextbooksthroughoutthisstudy.

3.4Thebooksinthestudy
Beforedivingintovariouslinguisticaspectsofthenarrativestyletextbooks,I
wanttogiveashortdescriptionofeach.
3.4.1JACTsReadingGreek
Thisseriesofbooks(hereaftercalled
JACT
)isdesignedforclassroomsettings,
althoughathirdbookallowsforstudentsworkingwithoutteacherstostudyaswell.The
firsttwobooksaredividedintoagrammarbookwithexercises(
GVE
)andareading
bookwithrunningvocabulary(
Text
). 13
ThenarrativeitselfisbasedonAncientGreeksources,whichareclearlyindicated
atthebeginningofmajorsections.Insomesectionsthesectionisdevotedtooneworkof
Greekliterature.InthecaseofSectionSevenitisAristophanessplay,
Birds
.The
structureofthenarrativeisapparentifyouknowthepurposeofthecommitteebehind
ReadingGreek
.

13

Thisstudyusesanearliereditionwhichissplitintogrammarbookwithexercisesandrunningvocabulary
andareadingbook.Thetextismateriallythesame.

25

Therewouldhavebeenlittlepointinsuchaproject[i.e.theproductionof
ReadingGreek
]ifthecurrentdeclineofGreekinschoolshadclearly
reflectedageneral,growingandirreversiblefailureonthepartofmodern
societytorespondaestheticallyandintellectuallytoGreekculture:but
therehasbeennosuchfailureofresponse,forthepopularityofGreek
literatureintranslationandofcoursesinGreekartandhistoryhas
continuedtoincrease.(JACT,1992:Text,vii).

3.4.2Athenaze
Athenaze
isaseriesofbooksalsodesignedforclassroomsettings,butitdoesnot
haveanyguideforselfinstruction.Thebookhereisdividedintotwolevels,butthefirst
volumeistheonlyoneIwillexamine.
ThenarrativeofthistextbookfollowsaGreekfamilythroughtheirlivesinrural
GreecewithadetourthroughmythandculminatesinaseavoyagetoAthens.Like
JACT
,
thereisarelianceonthesourcetexts.BalmeandLawallsay
theGreekinmuchofthemainstorylinehasbeenmadeuptoservethe
instructionalpurposesofthebook.Mostofthesubplots,however,are
basedontheancientGreekwritingsofHomer,Herodotus,and
Thucydides.TheymovesteadilyclosertotheGreekoftheauthors
themselves.TheextractsfromBacchylidesandAristophanesareunaltered
exceptforcuts(1990:vi).

3.4.3AncientGreekAlive
Liketheothertwo,
AncientGreekAlive
isaclassroombookfilledwithnarrative,
butthedifferenceinnarrativetopiccouldnotbemoredifferent.Otherfeatures,which
willbediscussedinlaterchapters,areuniquetothisbooktoo.WhereearlierIsaidthat
mostAncientGreektextsplacenoemphasisonactuallyspeakingAncientGreek,this
textopenswithaseriesofninespokenscripts.Theauthorssaythatstudentsfindthe

26

conversationalmethodthemostnaturalandleastintimidatingwaytobeginandthat
teacherscancontinuewithconversation(AGA,1999:xvii).Towhichtheybothsay
thattheymostlydroptheconversationintheirteaching.
Thenarrativesin
AncientGreekAlive
arenotbasedonAncientGreeksources.
Saffirestatesthatsheisapurist[who]wasunwillingtowaterdownorotherwisedistort
Greekmaterial.IadmiredtheGreektextsfortheirbeautyandvigor,anddidnotwantto
tamperintheleast(1999:xv).Hersolutionwas,amongothersources,touseSheikh
NasrudinstoriesbecauseIthoughttheywereintenselyamusing(ibid.).14Whilepurists
mightbalkatthistactic,Aesopstalesincludestoriesthatfeatureanimals.Thisstyleof
storyfeaturinganimalsandwisdommaystrikeusaschildlike,butinfifthcentury
AthensAesopcouldstillbeanauthoritywhomyouhadtoconsult(Gibbs,xi).The
fableswereabodyofpopularknowledgethatwasmeanttoberegularlygoneoverand
broughttomindasneeded(Gibbs,xi).Sointhisaspect,
AncientGreekAlive
usesa
teachingmethodofancientGreecetoavoidtamperingwiththeliterarysourcesof
AncientGreece.15

3.5Thestudy
3.5.1CorpusMatching
OneparticularaspectIexamineisvocabularyusewithinthenarratives,
particularlyfrequenciesofthelemmas.ForeachbookIextractthreeselectionsfor
vocabularyanalysis.Theselectionsarethefirstnarrativestudentsencounter,anarrative

14

Ialmosthatetoleaveitonamusingasitfeelslikeshestrivializingheraccomplishment.
Yodawg,Iheardyouliketv,soIputatvinyourcarsoyoucanwatchtvwhileyoudrive.

15

27

nearthemiddleofthebook,andthelastnarrativeinthebook.
Althoughthisstudymaybeimprovedbytheuseofthewholeofthenarrativetext
inAncientGreek,Iuseselectedportionsfortechnicalratherthanmethodological
reasons.SinceIdonothaveaccesstothetextdigitally(despiteattemptstocontactthe
publishers),IhadtokeyintheAncientGreekpassages.Thusthelimitationtothree
selectionsfromeachofthethreebooks.
Ifocusonvocabularytotheexclusionofmorphologyandsyntaxforatwofold
reason.Thefirstisthatinalanguagetextbook,particularlyinclassicallanguage
textbooks,thelanguageaccessibletostudentsisconstantlymovingfromsimpletomore
nativelikebothinthestudentscapacitytounderstandandinwhatlanguagethebookis
presenting.Soinvestigatingthematchofcaseusage,forexample,inonebookwithcase
usageinAncientGreekliteratureisafoolserrand.Earlyinthebook,allofthecases
haveyettobetaughtand,therefore,cannotaccuratelyreflectthelanguageinany
meaningfulway.Thesecondhalfofmyfocusonvocabularyisthattosomedegree
vocabularycanserveasaproxyforknowledgeofthelanguageasawhole.Indeed,
researchershavefoundthatlexicalknowledgecorrelateswithreadingabilityinasecond
language(Schmitt,2010:4).Asanexampleofthisclaim,theparticle
an
cannotbetaught
tostudentsbeforetheoptativeorsubjunctivemoodistaught.Likewise,theappearanceof
theverb
lanthano
isaprettyreliablestandinforknowledgeofaccusativecaseandthe
presentparticiple.Foreachoftheseexamplestheoppositeissomewhattrueaswell.Ifa
studentknowstheoptativemood,theyshouldalsoknowhowtousetheparticle
an
.Ifa
studentknowsthepresentparticiple,theymayalsobeawareofitsconnectionto

28

lanthano
.
Forthepurposeoflexicalanalysis,Igatherseveralpiecesofdatafromeach
selection.SinceAncientGreekisahighlyinflectedlanguage,insteadofsortingtokens
intotypesIsortthetokensintolemmas.Thisapproachtolemmatizingthetokensis
justifiedsincepsycholinguisticresearchindicatesthatthemindstoresonlythebase
formofthelemmaandthenattachesinflectionalsuffixesonlinewhentheyareneeded
(Schmitt,2010:189).Ithencalculatethefrequencyofeachlemmaper1,000tokens(so
astohavefrequencieshigherthan1)andpercentageofcoverageaseachlemmaisadded.
Thepurposebehindeachofthesepiecesofdataistocreatecomparisonswithinthetexts,
withinAncientGreekandwithinlanguagegenerally.
EachofthesesectionswillbecomparedagainstPlatos
Republic,
book1,fora
fewreasons.One,itisalongcorpusthatIhavegoodvocabularyfrequencydatafor.
Two,itiswrittenintheAtticdialectofAncientGreek,whichisthetargetdialectofeach
ofthebooks.Three,Platoisawriterwhosewordsarecommonlystudiedbymore
advancedstudentsofAncientGreek.ThefrequencydataisdrawnfromSteadmans
commentaryof
Republic
,book1(2012).
Themajordrawbacktousing
Republic
,book1,asastandinforthewholecorpus
ofancientGreekliteratureisthatPlatohasadistinctwritingstyle.Ihesitatetosaythat
Platohasawrittenidiolect.Eventhoughwrittenstylehaselementsofidiolectboundup
intoit,idiolectinvolvesspokenlanguagewhereasstyleispartofthediscursivetradition
(Rico,n.d.).16Thedifferenceisnotminor,buttheeffectismuchthesame.Platos
Lidiolecteconstitueuncasdespcedela
langue
tandisquelestylereprsenteuneapplicationdela
traditiondiscursive
.
16

29

Republic
,insomeways,haspeculiaritiestoitthatmakeitdistinctfromthewritten
corpusofthelanguageasawhole.
Evenso,
Republic
,book1,canserveasastandinforthecorpusofancientGreek
literature.First,itisareasonablylongtext.Itrunsto9,274wordsinlength.Whileitmay
reflectPlatossubjectmatterorstyleofwriting,itisalsowritteninAtticGreek,whichis
thetargetdialectofthetextbooksinthisstudy.Theidealcorpusofalanguageisalarge
andprincipledcollectionofnaturaltexts(Biber,Conrad&Reppen,1998:12).The
reasonalargecorpussizeisdesirableisbecausewordsensesandcollocationalpatterns
areoftenmuchlesscommonthangrammaticalpatterns(Biber,Conrad&Reppen,1998:
25).Fortunately,itispossibletousesmallercorporatofacilitatestudies(1998:26).
SinceIamnotlookingtofindwordsensesorcollocationalpatternsbuttogetahandleon
rawfrequencyoflemmasinthelanguage,Platos
Republic,
book1sufficesforthetaskat
hand.Itislongenoughtonotdisplayanyoddfrequencieseffect,whichIshowcan
happeninChapter4withashortselection,butitisshortenoughthatsomeofthenumber
crunchingforlexicalfrequencyhasbeendone(Steadman,2012b,andPerseus,2014).
3.5.2Countingvocabulary
Anotherwaytogetasenseofhowmuchlanguagestudentsarelearningisto
countupthenumberofvocabularywordsthatstudentsareexpectedtoknow.While
gettingtoa98%coveragerateforallofancientGreekliteraturemightbeastretch,one
wouldexpectstudentscouldreachMajors80%coveragelist.Sincethelistis1,100
itemslong,Idonotcounteachwordandmatchittothevocabularyformemorization.
RatherIcountupthenumberofitemspresentedtostudentsasitemstolearn.Tobesure,

30

thenumberreportedwillbesomewhatinflatedaswordformsputonthevocabularyto
memorizelistmayshowuplaterasacompletelemma,oranidiomorcollocationmaybe
addedintothemixofvocabularyitemstolearn,butinanycasethenumbersshouldgive
usanapproximateideaofthedepthofvocabularyknowledgethatstudentsacquireinthe
curriculum.
3.5.3Accuracyofculturalportrayal
TheotheraspectofthisstudyistheportrayalofAncientGreekculture.Iexamine
culturalportrayalintwoportionsofthebook.Thefirstportrayalofcultureiswithinthe
AncientGreeknarrativesthatarethemaintoolforconveyingthelanguage.Thesecond
portrayalofcultureisinEnglishlanguageculturalessays.UsingGeesContextis
ReflexiveTool(2014:8485),Iexaminehowthebooksdeploytheirauthoritytocreate
understandingsofancientGreekcultureinstudentsheads.Theimportantthinghereis
thatweseecontextasreflexive,whichistosayspeakingreflectscontextandcontext
reflects(isshapedby)speaking(whatwassaid)(Gee,2014:85).Ofcourseinthecase
ofthetextbooks,itiswritingandnotspeakingthatweareconcernedwith.
Thecontextthatthebookscreateinsideandoutsideoftheirnarrativesisthatof
ancientGreekculture.Sincethecontextsarenotequal,onecontextiscreatedwith
AncientGreekitselfandtheothercontextiscreatedwithEnglish,Iexaminebothofthem
separately.ThereasonIwanttotreatthemseparatelyisbecauseofGeesFrameProblem
(2014:3037).Statedatitsmostsuccinct,GeesFrameproblemsaysthatanyaspectof
contextcanaffectthemeaningofanutterance(2014:31).Giventhattwolanguagesare
beingusedineachbook,thatdividemayhavepowerfulconsequencesbehindit.WhileI

31

donotexpecttofindoutandoutfalseinformationaboutGreeksociety,Ifullyexpectto
findthatthepictureisratherlimitedinwhatispresented.

32

4.Study
Ultimately,thetextsinthisstudyhaveamassiveadvantageoverthetextsthatare
notunderconsideration:thenarrativesineachtextbooksupplymanyrepetitionsof
vocabularytobelearnedinnarrative.Thetextsareclearlynotextensivereadingasseen
inHorstsstudytheyprettytightlyconstrainwhatstudentswillbereadingratherthan
allowstudentstoreadatwill.Ontheotherhand,theyincludeagreatdealof
readingfar,far,farmorethaneventhemosttextrichgrammartranslationtextbook
(seesection3.1forarepresentativeselection).
Buthowdotheycompareonthefrontofvocabulary?Dotheyteachallof
Majors50%list?DoesitmirrorMajors80%coveragelist?Doesthedistributionof
vocabularyitemsmatchtheMiltonandAlexiounumbersneededforfluency?Dothe
booksportrayAncientGreeksocietyinanaccurateway?Questionslikethisinterestme
becausetheyshowhowtextbooksdeploytheauthorityinherentinthemamongthe
students.

4.1Positioningandauthority
Beforeexaminingthewaysthatthetextsinquestionusetheirauthoritybetween
theircovers,aquicklookathowthebookspositionthemselvestothestudentsisinorder.
Initspreface,
Athenaze
startsoffweaklybystatingthat
Athenazes
originaleditionwas
usedquitewidelyinEnglishschoolsandalsoinafewuniversities(1990:not
numbered).
Thisapproachtopositioningthebookitselfismuchweakerthantheapproach

33

that
AncientGreekAlive
takes,whichinvolvestellingteachershowlongithadbeenin
usethirtysevenyearsasofpublicationandthatitisagreatstudentfavoriteandfun
toteach,impartingasolidandthoroughmasteryofintroductoryGreek(AGA,1999:
xvii).Itisveryhardtoarguewithastudentfavoritethatalsoimpartsmasteryofthetopic
athand.17Onethingthatmaybeworthnoting:
AncientGreekAlive
ispublishedbya
smallacademicpublisherUniversityofNorthCarolinaPressratherthanthelarge
multinationalthatpublishes
Athenaze
OxfordUniversityPress.Asasmallpressthey,
andbyextensiontheirbooks,mustpositionthemselvesdifferentlyfromacompanythat
haslargeamountsoffinancialresources.Inasimilarvein,smallbeveragecompanies
sometimestrytocompeteagainstlargecompaniesbyofferingcolas,whichislikeasmall
presspositioningitstitlesnodifferentlythanalargepresspositionsitstitles.Dr.Pepper,
however,maximizedproductdifferentiationbymaintaininganarrowlineofbeverages
builtaroundanunusualflavor(Porter,1979:143144).Likewise,theUniversityof
NorthCarolinaPresshasabook
AncientGreekAlive
thatismarkedlydifferentfrom
theothertwobooksinthestudy.Ifthelargepressesareofferingtraditional
narrativedrivenAncientGreektextbooks,
AncientGreekAlive
positionsitselfawayfrom
Athenaze
and
JACT
byusingopeninglessonswithspokenAncientGreekandnarratives
drawnfromnonGreeksources.Theresourcestodowhattheotherbooksdoinexactly
thesamewaydonotexistatasmallerpress.
CambridgeUniversityPresshasthoseresources.
JACT
mentionssomeofthe
financialfiguresinvolvedinitsforeword.anappealfor40,000...63,000

Andthenarrativesin
AncientGreekAlive
arefun.

17

34

contributed...andappealfor15,000in1974money(Text,1992:vii).Whilenotvast
sumsofmoney,40,000in1974isequivalentto363,700or$557,623asofearly2015.
18

Thisamountofmoneymaynotbeenoughmoneytobuyamansion,butcertainly

enoughtobuyanordinaryhousewithmoneyleftover.Inanycase,itismeanttoimpress
thereaderthat
JACT
isnotaflybynighttextbook.Dover,oneoftheauthorsof
JACT,
thengoesontotoexplain,though,thatthecontentofthetextisdeterminedasseldomas
possiblebylinguistictidinessandasoftenaspossiblebytheneedtoacquainttheadult
andnearadultlearnerdirectlywiththecharacteristicfeaturesofGreekculture(Text,
1992:viiiix).And,onewouldhope,language.Bethatasitmay,itisanindicationthat
theauthorsof
JACT
wereawareoftheneedtoprovideanaccuratepictureofAncient
Greekcultureandlanguage,eveniftheywerenotawareofthereasonsthatIhavebeen
discussingtothispoint.
Inallthreecases,thebooksaredifferentiatingthemselvesviapositioningfrom
theverybeginning.
JACT
positionsitselfashavingseriousresourcesbehinditand
desiringtoprovideanaccuratepictureofGreekculture.
Athenaze
positionsitselfasatext
thathasbeeninuseinschoolsalready.(Andwhyareyounotyetonthebandwagon?).
AncientGreekAlive
positionsitselfasafunandrefreshingalternativetotraditionalstudy
ofAncientGreek.

4.2Vocabularyanalysis
Lookingatthevocabularyisprobablythesinglebestwaytogetameasurementof

18

Iused
http://www.measuringworth.com/ukcompare/
tomake1974poundsinto2015poundsand
http://coinmill.com/GBP_USD.html
toconvertfrompoundstodollarsasthetimeofwriting.

35

howthetextbooksstackupaslearningtoolsforreadingtheliterature.Althoughthesize
ofthelexiconthatstudentscouldpotentiallylearnforanygivenlanguageisinfinite
(Hanks,2013:29),itispracticallyboundedforAncientGreekowingtothefactthatno
newtextsarejoiningtheliterarycorpus.19
4.2.1Highfrequencywords
Inanycase,studentswillwanttofocusonthewordswiththehighestfrequencies
andwordsinclosedcategories.Hankstellsusthatinthenextdecadeorsotherewillbe
comparativelylittlesignificantgrowthinthenumbersofverbsintheEnglishlexicon,no
newadverbs,nonewprepositions,andnonewpronouns(2013:32).LookingatMajors
listof63toreach50%coverage,thereareexactlyfournouns.WhileAncientGreekis
notaddingwordstoitscorpus,itcertainlyalignswithHanksnotionsaboutwherewords
areadded.Theyareaddedinnouns.Hankslateraddsthatforlearnersfunctionwords
canbeconsideredaspartofthegrammaticalcomponentofasyllabus(2013:424).
Again,Majorslistbearsthisout.20Thirteenprepositions,11conjunctionsand8
pronounsareonthelist.Buriedintheadjectivesaresuchfunctionalwordsasonedefinite
articleandsixdeterminers(Major,2008:4).Theproblemthatconfrontsusishow
quicklydostudentsrunacrossthesewordsincontext?
Thefollowingtablegivesusanideaofhowquicklythislistofwordsispresented
notjustincontext,butitalsogivesusasenseofhowoftensomeofthesewordscan
potentiallyberepeated.Ishouldnotethatmanyprepositionsarepolysemousdepending

19

TherearedefinitelyhapaxlegomenonsinthecorpusofAncientGreekliteratureaswellaspossiblenew
wordsjoiningthecorpusasinthecaseofthenewtechnologybeingabletopiercecharredpapyrusesaddingto
theliterarycorpus.
http://lat.ms/1zaM7Nb
SothelexiconisntquiteasclosedasImakeitouttobe.
20
IknowIciteitinthereferencelist,butheresalink:
http://bit.ly/16CzQLR

36

onwhatcasetheircomplementhas,soIammerelynotingthefirstpresentationofeach
prepositionalmeaningratherthanexhaustingthelist.
Timeto
reach
threshold

JACT
chapter

JACT
%of
courseto
cover

Athenaze
chapter

Athenaze
%of
courseto
cover

AGA
chapter

AGA
%of
courseto
cover

10

1C

5%

6%

Scripts

2%

20

1
Grammar

5%

19%

Prechapt
er

4%

30

2A

11%

31%

7%

40

3E

16%

38%

16%

50

5D

26%

44%

16

29%

59

14

88%

60

9E

47%

38

68%

63

glossary

Books
coverage
oflist

61

97%of
list
covered

59

94%of
list
covered

61

97%of
list
covered

Figure4.1AppearancerateforMajors50%coveragelist

37

Majors50%coveragelistdoesnotmakeitintothememorywordsforanyofthe
booksinitsentirety.Ascanbeseen,allofthebookscoveratleast90%ofthelist,which
isimportant,butonlyoneofthebooksincludesallofthewordswithinthe
narratives
JACT
.Howevereven
JACT
doesnotputallofthosewordsintothe
vocabularytobememorized.

JACT

Athenaze

AncientGreekAlive

Omitted
words

,andnot
,
suchasthis

,modalparticle
,,anyonewho
,prior
,such
asthis

,especially
,prior

Figure4.2WordseachtextbookomitsfromvocabularytobelearnedinMajors50%
coveragelist

WhatisinterestingaboutthewordsthatareskippedfromMajors50%coverage
listineachbookisthatnoneofthemsavethemodalparticle,
an
,in
Athenaze
are
particularlycrucialtoastudentsabilitytoreadAncientGreek.
Athenazes
lackofthe
modalparticle,
an
,isnotamajorhinderanceasthegrammaticalstructurescorrelated
withitarenottaughtinthebook1oftheseries,whichistheonlybookintheseriesthat
isinthisstudy.
Inanycase,thewordsthatmakeupthestructureofAncientGreekareincluded,
forthemostpart,inthebooks.
4.2.2Thefrequenciesofthewordsthemselves
AsidefromthefunctionworkswithinAncientGreek,wecanlookattheentirety

38

ofthevocabularyused,bothasawholeandinsections.21

Figure4.3Frequencyandlemmacoveragecurvesfor
JACT
section1A

21

Fulldataishere:
http://bit.ly/TextbookLemmaAnalysis

39

Figure4.4Frequencyandlemmacoveragecurvesfor
AGA
section1A

Figure4.5Frequencyandlemmacoveragecurvesfor
Athenaze
section1A

40

WhileIhaveplottedthefrequenciesascurves,Ishouldnotethatthesedataare
notcontinuousinnature.Eachlemmahasaspecificfrequencyanditisnotinanyway
continuouswithneighboringlemmas.Thecurveismeantasanaidforvisualizationof
dataindiscretepointsratherthananimplicationofcontinuity.
Ascanbeseeninallthree,theblueline,whichrepresentswordfrequenciesper
1,000,fallsoffsteeplytocreateaZipfstylecurve(Matthews,2007:442).Inthecaseof
JACT
section1A,Figure4.3,wecanseeabumpabovethelabel
ploion
.Thisbumpisnot
characteristicofaZipfcurve.ThesameistrueofthecurveinFigures4.4and4.5.
Insteadofmovingevenlytowardlowfrequency,thereisalumpofwordshangingout
justabovetheoneuseinthepassagefrequency.InFigure4.4thislumpishanging
between
eis
and
lego
.InFigure4.5thislumpishangingoutbetween
bios
and
chalepos
.
Whatweareseeingineachofthesefiguresisadistortionofthefrequenciesofwords.
Giventhattheseselectionsareattheverybeginningofstudywherestudentshavethe
leastvocabulary,itshouldnotcomeasanysurprisethatthissortoflessnatural
distributionoffrequenciesshouldoccur.
Whatisnotableisthenearabsenceofpronounsin
JACT
and
Athenaze
.
Ancient
GreekAlive
hasa90wordtextwith3pronounlemmas(outof40distinctlemmas)
makingup8ofthetokens(8.9%ofthetext).Thereasonforthisdifferenceistwofold.
Ontheonehand,vocabularyisastandinforsyntax.Giventhatastudentssyntaxisas
rudimentaryastheirvocabularyatthisearlystageoflearning,itisnosurprisethatsome
things,pronounsinthisinstance,getleftout.Ontheotherhand,
AncientGreekAlive
opensupwithaseriesofninespokenlanguagelessons.Whileitispossibletohavea

41

writtentextthatassiduouslyavoidspronouns,particularlyinaprodroplanguagelike
AncientGreek,itisalmostimpossibletodosoinconversation.Inanycasethelackof
pronounsin
Athenaze
and
JACT
isastrikeagainsttheirfidelitytoAncientGreek.

Frequency/1,000

Lemma22

Tokens

ho

autos

kai

de

tis

eimi

Platos
4,637
Republic
book
123

199.70

26.53

101.72

62.54

12.51

97.69

JACT1A

136

257.35

66.18

66.18

14.71

7.35

AGA1

90

177.78

22.22

22.22

22.22

11.11

33.33

Athenaze1A

94

159.57

63.83

31.91

85.11

Figure4.6Relativefrequenciesofselectedlemmasatstartoftextbooks
Intermsoftheuseofthedirectarticle
ho
,wecanseethatthefrequenciesinthe
beginningnarrativesinthebook,whilenotexactlymatchingthePlatotextareinthe
approximateneighborhoodofhisusage.Theconjunctions
kai
and
de
areanotherstory.
Ofthethreetexts,only
JACT
approximatesPlatosuse.
Athenaze
isshortofPlatosuse,
but
AncientGreekAlive
isevenfurthershortofPlatosfrequencies.Ontheotherhand,
Athenaze
comesclosesttoPlatosfrequencyof
eimi
,whichisAncientGreekscopula,
and
JACT
and
AncientGreekAlive
fallquiteshortofanativespeakersliterary
frequency.Partofthesefrequencydiscrepanciesaredoubtlessduetothestageofstudent
knowledgeofthesecondlanguage.Theotherpartofthesefrequencydiscrepanciescould
alsoarisefromthebrevityofthecorpus.Only
JACTs
readingselectiontops100words.
22

ThesixlemmasinthisandthefollowingfiguresarethemostfrequentlemmasinAncientGreekinthedata
collectedbyFrancese(2014)fortheDickinsonCollegeCommentariesvocabularylist.
23
TherawdataforthischartisdrawnfromPerseus(2014)andSteadman(2012b).

42

Whenthesamplesizeissmaller,itiseasiertocreatedistortionsinthefrequencies,as
willbeseenbelow.

Frequency/1,000

Lemma

Tokens

ho

autos

kai

de

tis

eimi

Platos
4,637
Republic
book
1

199.70

26.53

101.72

62.54

12.51

97.69

JACT10B

335

125.37

17.91

65.67

29.85

8.96

14.93

AGA26

184

173.91

21.74

54.35

10.87

38.04

Athenaze8A

298

154.36

57.05

57.05

3.36

16.78

Figure4.7Relativefrequenciesoflemmasatmidpointoftextbooks
Atthemidpointofthebooksweseethesamesortsofissues.Ofthethreebooks,
JACT
mostcloselyresemblesthesampledtext,thoughitisoffintermsofthelemmas
autos
and
eimi
,particularlyinthelattercase.Thisvariancecouldjustbeanartifactofthe
selections.
AncientGreekAlive
and
Athenaze
bothshowseriousvariancefromthesample
text.Eachonehasalemmathatitdoesnotuseatall.
AncientGreekAlive
hasno
instancesof
tis
(what?)initsselection,thoughitisnotimpossibletoimagineatextthat
asksnoquestions.
Whatismoreworryingintermsofthelanguagepresentedistherepeatedabsence
of
autos
(3rdpersonpronoun)in
Athenaze
.Itisnotasifthe3rdpersonpronounhasnot
beencoveredbythebook.Quitethecontrary,asitisintroducedinchapter5B.Whyand
howtheauthorsof
Athenaze
managetoavoidtheuseof
autos
isapuzzle,thoughthere
maybecluesindeixis.

43

Frequency/1,000

Lemma

Tokens

ho

autos

kai

de

tis

eimi

Platos
4,637
Republic
book
1

199.70

26.53

101.72

62.54

12.51

97.69

JACT19G

299

46.82

3.34

30.10

60.20

13.38

AGA54

103

19.42

9.71

19.42

19.42

19.42

9.71

146.67

6.67

20.00

56.67

10.00

10.00

Athenaze16B 300

Figure4.8Relativefrequenciesoflemmasatendoftextbooks
Attheendofthebook,thefrequencieslookcompletelyoffinsomewayor
anotherforeachofthethreetextbooks.Aswasthecasewiththefirstchapter,the
frequencyofsomelemmasisonthelowside,butthereisareasonforthesevariances.
Itisespeciallyevidentinthefrequencyofthelemma
ho
in
JACT
and
Ancient
GreekAlive.
Thisdiscrepancyisanillusioncreatedintwoways.Both
JACT
and
Ancient
GreekAlive
areusingactualAncientGreektextsastheirnarrativesinthelesson,sothe
problemisnotinauthenticlanguage.Thefirstpartoftheillusionisthat
JACTs
textisa
selectionof
Odyssey
,book6,whichisnotwritteninAtticGreek.Infact,theuseof
ho
in
EpicGreekiscompletelydifferentfromitsuseinAtticGreek.
ho
canbeusedasasimple
pronounmeaninghe/she/itratherthanasadefinitearticle(GVE,1992:255).Sochange
inthelanguageitselfcandriveafrequencydiscrepancy.Theselectionin
AncientGreek
Alive
hasdivergentfrequencyforadifferentreason.Itisshort.Whileitsselectionisalso
drawnfromtheliterature,itsselectionof
OedipusRex
isveryshort.If
OedipusRex
asa
wholeisinvestigated,weseethis.

44

Frequency/1,000

Lemma

Tokens

ho

autos

kai

de

tis

eimi

Platos
4,637
Republic
book
1

199.70

26.53

101.72

62.54

12.51

97.69

OedipusRex

9,345

55.22

7.60

26.22

13.48

10.91

16.37

AGA54

103

19.42

9.71

19.42

19.42

19.42

9.71

Figure4.9Relativefrequenciesoflemmasinshortselectionversuscompletework
Wecaneasilyseethat
Republic
hasmorefrequentuseofthewordsinfigure4.9.
Thewholeoftheplaythoughhasslightlydifferentfrequenciesthantheshortselectionin
AncientGreekAlive
mightleadustobelieve.While
Republic
and
OedipusRex
bothuse
ho
atdifferentrates,theybothuseitmuchmorefrequentlythantheselectionin
Ancient
GreekAlive
mightleadustobelieve.Sowhilebotharedefinitivelyusingauthentictexts
asthenarrative,itispossibletoselecttextsthatarenotrepresentativeoftheprevious
contentofthebookinsomewayoranother.
4.2.3Lowerfrequencywords
Whilethehighfrequencywordswilltosomedegreeoranothergettakencare
oftheyareafterallthegrammaticalmachineryofthelanguagethelowerfrequency
wordsareanothermatter.TurningbacktoMajors80%coveragelist,wecannowlookat
howmanyvocabularyitemsareincludedinthecorelistofitemstobememorized.None
ofthesearewordsthatmightfallintoastudentsknowledgethroughrepeatedexposure
orExtensiveReading.Thesewordsaretheonesthattheauthorsselectedasworthyof
committingtomemory.

45

Textbook

Itemsinvocabularytobe
learned

Majors80%list

1,000to1,100

JACT

1,318

AncientGreekAlive

682

Athenaze

603

Figure4.10Numberofvocabularyitemstobelearnedineachbook
Astrikingdifferenceisimmediatelynoticed.
JACT
hasmorethandoublethe
vocabularyformemorizationthaneither
AncientGreekAlive
or
Athenaze
does.Partof
thisexplanationisthat
Athenaze
isatwobookseries,ofwhichthesecondbookwasnot
countedinthetotalfigure.Buthoworwhy
AncientGreekAlive
fallssoshorton
vocabularytomemorizeisinexplicable.Sixhundredeightytwowordsdoesnoteven
comeclosetothe80%coverageofMajorslonglist.Only
JACT
hasanyhopeof
presentingthatmuchvocabulary.
Anotherstrikingfeatureisthatthevocabularymemorizationloadisspread
reasonablyevenlythroughoutthebookonboth
JACT
and
Athenaze
.Inanygivenunitof
JACT
,astudentcouldbeexposedtoanywherebetweentwoand34wordsfor
memorization.Likewisein
Athenaze
,studentscouldbeexposedtoanywherebetween
fourand34wordsformemorizationinanychapter.Inasense,
AncientGreekAlive
isthe
oddmanoutonthisfront,too.Insteadofdirectingstudentstolearnvocabularygradually,
therearefourlargevocabularyreviewswithbetween104and175wordsfor
memorization.Alsoatvariancewiththeothertwobooks,thewordspresentedinthe

46

vocabularyreviewsarefrequentlyleftundefined.
4.2.4Wordlearningadviceoffered
Withsuchadeficitofvocabularyitemsinthevocabularyreviews,another
strategyisnecessaryforstudents.
AncientGreekAlive
givesastrikingbitofadvice:
studentsshouldpunt.Noteverythingislearnedsystematicallytobeginwith.Sometimes
youwillpuntfirst,andlearnthesystemlater(AGA,1999:19).Incaseyouhadany
doubtastohowimportantthisinformationis,theauthorshavethoughtfullycalleditout
withabox.Andthisstrategyisuseful,becausesomeGreekwordshavemethodsof
formationthatmatchupwithEnglishwordformation.
JACT
ontheotherhandismuchmorecircumspectaboutvocabularyhelpand
tellsstudentsthatthereadingsaresupportedbyfullvocabularyhelp(Text,1992:xi).
However,assoonasthestudentturnstotheGVE,exercisestheredirectstudentstomake
connectionsbetweenrelatedAncientGreekwords.Makinganeducatedguessisnot
officiallycondoneduntilyouaredoingyourhomework.
Athenaze
strikesasomewhat
middleroad.Exerciseswherestudentsaretodeducethemeaningofthefollowing
compoundverbs(Athenaze,1990:17)arescatteredthroughouttheearlyportionofthe
bookandincludeexercisesaimedatmakinglexicalconnectionsbetweenAncientGreek
wordsandtheirEnglishderivatives.24
Athenaze
furthernotesthatstudentsshouldstart
makingtheseconnections,sincerightfromthestartofyourstudyofGreekyoushould
begintorecognizethemeaningofmanynewwordsfromyourknowledgeofoneswith

24

Twoexamplesfromthenotedparagraph.SomeGreekwordsinEnglishclothingareobvious,suchas
lexical,butothershavegoneabitmorenative,sotospeak.SystemhasGreekoriginsthatsomepeoplemay
notguessat.

47

whichyouarealreadyfamiliar(1990:17).Infact,theauthorsof
Athenaze
donotgloss
compoundverbswitheasilyguessablemeanings(1990:17).Theyfeelitisnoteven
guessingsomewordsshould,anddo,havemorphologicallytransparentmeanings.

4.3WhatpictureofAncientGreecedothebooksbuild?
Inanotherfacetofwhatthebookspresent,weareconfrontedwiththeculture,
whichisasystemofideas,attitudesandpractices,ofAncientGreeceinboth
JACT
and
Athenaze
.Aswithconsiderationsofvocabulary,doesthecultureofAncientGreece
presentedmatchuptowhatweknowaboutGreeksocietyofthattime?
IfEFLbooksareanyguide,weshouldbeskeptical.EFLbooksinGreat
Britainoverrepresentthewhitemiddleclasspopulationwiththeirconcernsabout
holidaysandleisuretime,homedecorationanddiningout,theirpreoccupationwith
success,achievementandmaterialwealth.Absent,ornearlyabsentarethegreatvariety
ofminorities,peopleofAfrican,Indian,Pakistanese[sic]descentwhomakeupa
considerablepartofthepopulationandtheproblemsoftheilliteratemassesarerarelyor
nevermentioned(Dendrinos,1992:153).
Wecanalsolevelthissamecriticismathow
JACT
and
Athenaze
presentAncient
Greeksociety.25
4.3.1Dialectineachbooksnarrative
AncientGreeceencompassedmuchmorethanthecurrentcountryofGreece.In
the6thCenturyBCE,theGreekshadcolonizedmuchofthecoastlineoftheBlackand

25

Ishouldbequicktosay,thatwhateverweaknessesthebooksinthestudymayhave,theyrelightyears
aheadofgrammartranslationstylebooks.Inboth
JACT
and
Athenaze
weatleastgetoneportionofGreek
societypresentedwithinthecontextofthelanguage.

48

AegeanSeasaswellassouthernItaly,Sicily,thesoutherncoastofFrance,partsofthe
coastsofSpainandLibyaandpartoftheNileDelta(Adkins&Adkins,1997:126).But
readingboth
Athenaze
and
JACT
wouldleadastudenttobelievethatAthenswas,ifnot
theonlyplaceinGreece,themostimportant.Modernstudentswouldnotbemistakento
drawthisconclusion.ModernGreecehasapopulationof10.8millionandRegionof
Attica,whichmoreorlesscorrespondstotheAthensmetropolitanarea,hasapopulation
of3.8million(HellenicStatisticalAuthority,2014:1).Whilenumbersaredifficultto
comeby,itwouldbeamistaketoassumethatAthenswasthefocalpointof
Greekspeakingsocietyinantiquity.Inthe5thcenturyBCE,Athenshadabout45,000
citizens,whichdoesnotincludewomen,childrenornoncitizenmenslaveorfree
(Adkins&Adkins,1997:29).Andwhileitwasthelargestsinglecityonmainland
Greeceatthetime,itwascertainlynottheonlylargecityintheGreekworld.Overall,
noonecitydominatedfifthcenturyGreecedemographically.About6percentofall
GreekslivedinAttica,roughly4percentinSyracusesterritory,and3percentin
Spartas.Anotherdozenorsocitystateseachcontained1percentormoreofthe
population(Morris,2008:116).
Statisticsabouturbanpopulationsaside,thepopulationseemedtobelargelyrural.
Asaresultofthedistortedviewgivenbyancientauthorsandthemodernattention
centeringlargelyontowns,itwaspreviouslythoughtthatfromtheClassicalperiodthe
populationwasconcentratedintowns,orinsurroundingvillagescloselyconnectedto
towns.Itnowappearsthatthereweremanycountryhousesandfarmsteads(Adkins&
Adkins,1997:212).Thefirstcharacterintroducedin
Athenazes
narrativeisDikaiopolis

49
26

,whoappropriatelyenoughisafarmerlivingintheAthenianhinterland(1990:3).

JACT
makesnomentionoffarmersnoristhewordglossedintheTotalVocabulary
section(GVE:337ff.).
Ofcourse,both
Athenaze
and
JACT
taketheapproachofpresentingAthensand,
therefore,theAtticdialectasprominentfortworeasons,bothunstated.Thefirstisthat
AncientGreekwaspolycentric(Adkins&Adkins,1997:238).Theotheristhatavery
largeandimportantchunkoftheextantliteratureiswritteninAtticGreek.Many
prominentauthorsdidnotwriteinAtticGreek.Forexample,Herodotuswrotethe
Histories
intheIoniandialect(Steadman,2012:viii)andSapphowroteherpoetryinthe
Aeolicdialect(Annis,2005).Thefactremainsthatmanymajorauthors,particularly
Plato(GVE,1992:309),aswellaslaterAtticizingwriters,likeLucian(Hadavas,2014:
viii),wroteintheAtticdialect.SotonotteachtheAtticdialectdoesaseriousdisservice
towouldbestudentsofAncientGreek.AnAtticGreekonlyapproachhasonemajor
advantage.GiventheproblemsofseconddialectacquisitionnotedbySiegel(2008:
197210),itmightbeafoolserrandtoattempttoteachadifferentdialect.27The
drawbackisthatdialectsusedbyauthorswerenotnecessarilytheirnativetongueorthat
ofthecityinwhichtheywrote,butofthatofthegenre(Adkins&Adkins,1997:238).
ThisistosaythatphilosophywaswritteninAttic.ChoralpoetrywaswritteninDoric.
HistorywaswritteninIonic.Whateverproblemsseconddialectacquisitionpresents,the
studentofAncientGreekwillhavetoconfrontthem.

Nottobeconfusedwith
JACTs
Dikaiopolis,whodoesnothaveanapparentoccupation.

Alltextbookseitherexplicitlyorimplicitlychooseonedialecttopresent.Thechoicesavailableare
Homeric(forreadingthe
Iliad
andthe
Odyssey
),Attic(ageneralcatchallfortheClassicalperiodinAthens)
andKoine(mostlytostudytheNewTestament).
26

27

50

Eachofthebookstakesaslightlydifferentapproachtothepolycentricnatureof
AncientGreek.
AncientGreekAlive
doesthisbymakingexactlyzeromentionofthis
fact.MentionsofHomer(1999,15253)orIonia(1999:5859)failtomentiontheir
dialects.TheonlydiscussionofdialectisasitpertainstotheKoinedialectoftheNew
Testament,andeventherethedifferenceissetupasadiachronicdifferencethatresultsin
adialectthatisveryclosetoAtticGreekbutitssyntacticalstructuresaresimpler
(1999:85).ItisasifAncientGreekhasbeenarelativelyuniformentityinantiquitythat
experiencedonlythechangesovertimethatalllanguagesexperience,whichwasmost
certainlywasnotthecase.
Athenaze
,byandlarge,sidestepstheissuebyexplicitlyadaptingnonAttic
writerstotheAtticdialect(1990:206),thoughtherearecarefullyselectedquotesfrom
nonAtticsources(1990:189,191,204).
JACT
takestheoppositeapproach.NonAttic
sourcesarepresentedwithoutmodification,butratherstudentsaregivensupporting
informationsufficienttoreadthepassagespresented(Text,1992:156,168GVE1992:
24547,255258).

4.4Cultureineachbooksnarrative
Iwanttofocusontwoparticulargroupsfortherepresentationofculturewithin
thenarrativeportionsof
JACT
and
Athenaze
:slavesandwomen.Therearetworeasons
forthis.OneisthatbothofthesegroupsmadeupdailylifeinancientGreece.Theother
isthattheirappearancesarerelativelyeasytoisolateinthenarratives.
4.4.1Slaves
Alargelaborforceofslavesexisted,aswellasfreelabor,whichattimeswas

51

poorlypaidandwastosomeextentindistinguishablefromtheslaves(Adkins&Adkins,
1997:412).Appropriatelyenough,
Athenaze
introducesaslavecharacter,Xanthias,in
chapter2andfollowshisintroductionwithatwopagediscussionofslaveryinancient
Greece(1990:1314).Heisdescribedas
rathmos
(lazy)inmultipleplaces(19,21)andis
admonished
mephlyarei
(donttalknonsense)(27).Despitethesedescriptions,heislater
depicted
hodedoulosedeageitousbousprostonagron
(theslaveisalreadydrivingthe
oxentothefield)inthefollowingchapter(31).Xanthiasisthestockcharacterofthelazy
slavewhenthemasterneedstoexpressanger.TheslaveworkshardwhenDikaiopoliss
wifeisrousinghimfrombed.Inanycase,Xanthiasdoesnotseemtohaveapersonality
beyondthedemandsofthenarrative,whichinasensemakeshimnotonlyaslaveto
Dikaiopolisbutalsotothenarrative.
Anamelessslavecharacterisalsoseenin
JACT
,thoughhedoesnotmakean
appearanceuntilsection4B.Theslavespeakstwentywordsandisreferencedonsixlines
oftextandnotheardfromagain(Text:25).
Whyminimizetheappearanceoftheslaveinthetext?TheNewComedyperiod
ofancientGreektheaterfeaturedstockcharacterslikethedefiantslave(Coury,1982:
vii).Since
JACT
basesitsnarrativewhollyinthetextofancientwriters,itcertainlycould
haveusedslavecharacterswithinthenarrative,particularlyintheadaptationsofcomic
playsevenallowingthatNewComedyfallsoutsideof
JACTs
laserlikefocuson
fifthcenturyBCEAthens.
Athenaze
notesthatAristophanes,who
is
oneof
JACTs
primarysources,depictsslavesaslivelyandcheekycharacters(1990:14).Soweare
stuckwiththeproblemofasocietythatisbasedonslavelaborandhowtopresentit.

52

JACT
neatlysidestepstheissuebyminimizingtheappearanceofslaves,whichdoesnot
createanaccuratepictureofthetotalityofancientGreeksocietyatanyperiod,even
thoughauthorsdepictingslaveryarepartofthebookssourcematerial.
In
JACT
,theslaveisaddressedtwice,andbothofthosetimeheiscalled
pai
(vocativeforchild),whichisanappropriatethingtocallaslaveinancientGreece.Here
arethetwolinesaddressedtotheslave.
(4.1)

(4.2)

,.,,.
idou, pyra. deur elthe
o
pai
look pyre here come
IMP
o
child
Look,afuneralpyre.Comehere,boy,fast.

tacheos.
quickly

,,.
age
nun o
pai epiballe
ton nekron
cmon
IMP
now o
child throw.on
IMP the
corpse onto

epi

ten pyran tauten

the
pyre this
Cmonnow,boy,throwthecorpsehereontothefuneralpyre.
Aswecansee,theslavesmasterusesimperativeswiththeslaveineachofthe
linesdirectedathim.In
Athenaze
,DikaiopolisaddressesXanthiasthesameway.
(4.3)

,,.
speude
o
xanthia
kai fere
moi
arotron
hurry
IMP
o
Xanthias
and carry
IMP
to.me the
Hurryup,Xanthias,andbringtheplowtome.

(4.4) ,.
elthe
deuro o
katarate
come
IMP
here o
cursed.creature
Comehere,youabomination.

to
plow

In
Athenaze
too,themasteraddressestheslaveinimperatives,butinsteadof
pai
(child)DikaiopoliscallsXanthiasin4.4amuchharshername.Ifnothingelse,

53

DikaiopolissattitudetowardXanthiasisconsistentthroughthebook.
(4.5)

.
ho
xanthias
amelei
ouden poiei
the Xanthias
certainly
nothing
is.doing
Xanthiasis,nodoubt,doingnothing.
Thepicture
JACT
and
Athenaze
bothpaintisthatofslavesasnotjustbeing

inferiorinsocialstatus,butalsoinferiorincharacter.In4.4and4.5,Xanthiasis
portrayedaslazyandawful.While
JACT
doesnotgiveawayanyattitudestowardslaves
beyondcallingtheslave
pais
(child),itcertainlyminimizestheirroleinthenarrative.
4.4.2Women
Womenareperhapstrickiertowriteaboutthanslaveswithinthecontextof
ancientGreeksociety,becauseinthehomewomenwerekeptsegregatedintheirown
quarters(
gynaikonitis
or
gynaikeion
)andwerevirtuallyunseen[inpublic](Adkins&
Adkins,1997:408).Thissortoflivingarrangementwillmakeitverydifficulttoinclude
womeninthenarratives,unlessthosenarrativesaredeliberatelydomestic.
Thewritersof
JACT
didnottaketherouteofdomesticnarrative,andsowomen
aremostlyconspicuousbytheirabsence.Thereasonfortheirabsenceiseasytoexplain.
Althoughmenwerepartofboththe
polis
[publicsphere]and
oikos
[thehome],women
hadaroleonlyinthe
oikos
(Adkins&Adkins,1997:408).Sincemostoftheactionin
JACT
isinpublic,thebookaccuratelydoesnotportraywomenforthebulkofthetext.
TheAmazons,atribeofwomenwarriorswhoarenotGreek,arementionedinsection6G
(Text,1992:5253),thoughnonearenamedasindividuals.Thislackofnaming
accuratelyreflectsthesourcematerialdrawnfromHerodotuss
Histories
.Thenext

54

appearanceofawomaninthetextissection9(Text,1992:8088),whichisan
adaptationofthecomicplay
Lysistrata
.Whenpartfourof
JACT
,WomeninAthenian
Society,rollsaround,theauthorsexplainthedifficultyoflearninganythingabout
womenslivesinAtheniansociety(Text:95).Thispartofthebookislargelydrawnfrom
alegalspeechentitled
KataNeairas
(Athensvs.Neaira).Whiledirectinformationabout
theauthorsviewsrarelyshows,theyprefacetheAncientGreeknarrativethisway,You
mustcontinuallyaskyourselfthequestionWhatdoApollodoros[thespeakers]words
tellusabouttheaverageAthenianmalesattitudetothesubjectunderdiscussion?
(Text:96).Whileaskingthesesortsofquestionsisgoodpracticewhenreadinganything,
theauthorsof
JACT
feltitnecessarytoremindthestudentsofitwhenpresentingthis
topic.
Since
KataNeairas
isalegalspeechonbehalfoftheprosecution,thelanguageof
theprosecutionshouldbedamagingtoNeaira.Anditis.Sheisdescribedas
xene
(nonAthenianfemale),
doule
(slave)and
hetaira
(courtesan)(Text,1992:106).Since
thesedescriptionsaremeanttopersuadethejuryagainstNeaira(Text,1992:98),it
shouldbesafetosurmisethatproperAthenianwomenwerenotsupposedtobeslavesor
courtesans.

Infact,ingivingcontexttothestudentsbeforereadingsection11Ftwo
oppositewordsweregiven.
Xene
(nonAthenianfemale)istheoneappliedtoNeaira,but
aste
(femaleAtheniancitizen)isonethatwouldcometomindimmediatelyifwehad
beeninthejury.Thus
JACT
suppliesitforustogiveusthepropercontextfor
understanding
xene
.Beforemovingon,itisimportanttopointoutthatcitizenshipin
ancientGreecewasmorethanapoliticalaffair,itwasalsoaclassmarker.Underthelaw

55

ofPericles,amancouldnothave
politeia
(citizenship)unlesshehadafatherandmother
with
politeia
(Cancik&Schneider,2005:vol.11,474).
JACT
sintroductionoftheterm
aste
doesnotmakethesocialaspectsofcitizenshipclear,whichcouldhinderstudents
fullunderstandingofthecontextofthepassage.
Athenaze
tooktherouteofusingadomesticsetting,thefarmandfamilyof
Dikaiopolis,toprovidefortheappearanceofwomeninthenarrative.Inthemiddleofthe
book,chapter8Aand8B,weseethefamilyonajourneytoAthens.Ichosethischapter
sinceitdoesincludewomenandmentogetherinthenarrative.Sincethewholefamilyis
onthetrip,allofthecentralcharactersareinthenarrative:Dikaiopolis,Myrrine(his
wife),Phillipos(hisson)andMelitta(hisdaughter).Inthischapter,menarenamed10
timesandwomenarenamed11times.Menaregivennonspecificnames6timesin5
roles,whichare
pater
(father),
pappos
(grandpa),
pappas
(daddy),
doulos
(slave)and
aner
(man/husband).Womenaregivennonspecificnamesthreetimesinthreeroles,
whichare
gyne
(woman/wife),
thugater
(daughter)and
meter
(mother).Tworoles,which
arenotnecessarilysexspecific,
anthropos
(person)and
pais
(child)weregiventhree
times.Theinterestingthingaboutthenonspecificrolesisthat,exceptfor
doulos
,allof
therolesarefamilialroles.28Whilewomenarecalledoutfewertimesinfewerroles,that
doesnottakeawayfromthefactthattheserolesmaleandfemalearestrictly
domestic.
4.4.3Whatsthealternativetotheseproblems?
AncientGreekAlive
neatlysidestepstheproblemofhowtoportraysocietyin
28

ImusingfamilyinamorebiologicalthansocialsensethantheGreekswouldhaveunderstoodit.The
familywouldhavedefinitelyincludedtheslaveinantiquity.

56

antiquitybynotportrayingitineithermadeupnarrativessetinancientGreeceorin
adaptationsofancientGreekliterature.Allofthisnarrativeissetwhilehavingthe
languagethrustfrontandcenterandindeedusingapedagogicalmethodremember,
AesopusedanimalstoriesforteachingfamiliartoancientGreekculture,whichmisses
animportantpoint.OvertGreekcultureisnotpresentedinthenarrativeportionsatall.
ThereisnopictureofancientGreecepresentedwithintheL2narrativeof
AncientGreek
Alive
.
Cultureoutsideofeachbooksnarrative
Inadditiontothenarrativeselectionsofeachbook,theyalsopresentbitsabout
Greekcultureoutsideofthenarrativeselections.Thefollowingtablegivesthetitlesof
shortessaysthatgiveinsightintoAncientGreekculture.

57

JACT

Athenaze

AncientGreekAlive

Interleavedwiththe
readingsasheadingsfor
sectionsandshort
explanatorynotesbefore
broaderdivisionsofthe
book.29Thesedivisions
are:
Athensatsea
Moraldecay?
Athensthroughthecomic
poetseyes
WomeninAthenian
society
Athenianviewsofjustice
Gods,fateandman
Homericheroandheroine

TheAthenianFarmer(6)
Slavery(13)
TheDemeandthePolis
(24)
Women(35)
GodsandMen(46)
Myth(59)
Homer(74)
Athens:AHistorical
Outline(86)
TheCityofAthens(102)
Festivals(114)
GreekMedicine(130)
TradeandTravel(143)
TheRiseofPersia(156)
TheRiseofAthens(173)
TheAthenianEmpire
(198)

Greekwritingandliteracy
(7)
Greekmedicine(20)
ThewisdomofNasrudin
andSocrates(39)
TwoIonianphilosophers
(58)
TheNewTestament(85)
TurtleTales(101)
TheBrideofDeath(115)
Diogenes(132)
ThePersonalMuse(152)
TheHumanCity(178)
ThreeMedicalSymbols
(213)

Figure4.11:Culturalreadingtopicsoutsideofthenarratives
JACTs
treatmentofcultureiseitherwithinthenarrativeitselforincludedas
notesthatleadintovarioustopics.Thenarrativesthemselvesarearrangedtomirrorsome
ofthemainthemesofAncientGreekliterature.Thefirsttopic,Athensatsea,picksup
thethreadofhistory,ontheonehandasitrelatestothePersianinvasionsoffifthand
sixthcenturiesBCEandontheotherhandasthenarrativeissetduringthePeloponnesian
WarofthelatefifthcenturyBCE.Thepictureitbuilds,whileverythoroughandliterary,
hastheflawsandstrengthsnotedintheprevioussectionabouthowGreeksocietyis
presentedinthenarratives.
Athenaze
and
AncientGreekAlive
tackletheprobleminarelatedfashionwhile

29

Muchthewaythatthisintroductorynoteisinfrontofthedivisionsofthebook,soalsoarethecultural
notesinJACT

58

remainingdistinctintheauthorschoicesoftopic.BothbooksuseessaysinEnglishto
impartculturalknowledge.Athenazedescribesculturalconcernsaboutthedailylifeof
ancientGreeks(slavery,festivalsandtradeandtravel)andtheirhistory(TheRiseof
PersiaandTheRiseofAthens),whereas
AncientGreekAlive
isdecidedlymoreliterary
andphilosophicalinitsessays(TwoIonianPhilosophers,thePersonalMuseanda
politicalessayonTheHumanCity).Whileneithersetofessaysprovidesaninaccurate
viewwithintheessays,bothhavetheirbiases.
Asoneauthorof
AncientGreekAlive
statesinherintroductiontostudents,
Beingapurist,IwasunwillingtowaterdownorotherwisedistortGreekmaterial
(AGA,1999:xv).Betweentheauthorsclaimsofpurismandthelistofculturaltopics
coveredinthebook,aliterarypurposebehindthebookinthelistofculturaltopics
presentedsnapsclearlyintoview.
DotheseculturalessayspresentanaccuratepictureofancientGreeksociety?In
anearliersection,Dialectineachbooksnarrative,
AncientGreekAlive
presentsa
limitedpictureoftherealityofAncientGreekpolycentrism.Thesameisalsotrueofthe
culturalessays.Plato,amajorauthorinancientGreekphilosophyismentionedinhisrole
asSocratessstudent(1999:40)andasbeinginfluencedbyotherphilosophers(1999:
59).Socrates,whodidnotwriteasingleword,hasanessaydevotedtoacomparisonof
himandMullahNasrudin(1999:3940).XenophanesandHeraclitus,philosophers,get
anentireculturalessaydevotedtothem(1999:5859).Thesetwofiguresarerelatively
minorcomparedtoPlato.TheyhaveauthorednovolumesintheLoebClassicalLibrary
comparedtoPlatostwelvevolumes(2014).Admittedly,extantliteraturedoesnotequate

59

toimportance,30butIwouldarguethatpeopledonotcometothestudyofAncientGreek
becauseofminorauthors.Whilefragmentaryauthorsaredoubtlessfascinating(andthe
essayisinteresting)andtheessaydoessupplyimportantinformationaboutphilosophical
andliteraryinfluences,italsofailstogiveanaccuratepictureoftherelativeimportance
ofvariouswritersinthelimitedspaceavailableforculturalessays.
Onthetopicofwomen,theclosestSaffireandFriesgettotalkingaboutthelives
ofwomenisintheessaytitledTheBrideofDeath(1999:115116).Whileitis
understandablethattheirliterarybentintheculturalessaysminimizestheroleofwomen,
itisalsosurprisinggiventhatbothoftheauthorsarethemselveswomen.Theonly
mentiontheymakeofwomenisinthediscussionofawomanstombstone.They
concludewithTombstones,suchasthisone,giveusapoignantglimpseintothefamily
lifeoftheGreeksand,inparticular,thelivesofwomen(AGA,1999:116).Theessayon
ThePersonalMusementionsSappho,thoughmakesnomentionofthepeculiarityof
hersituation:theonlynamedwomanpoetfromancientGreece(AGA,1999:153).And
again,theydiscusscitizenshipintheessayTheHumanCitywhichspendsthebulkof
thepassagetalkingaboutcitizenshipbutonlymentionsthelackofcitizenshipforwomen
inthelastpassage(AGA,1999:178).Ifindithighlyanomalousthattwowomenwriting
atextbookaboutancientGreeceanditslanguagewouldnotgivemoretimetotheroleof
womeninthatsocietyespeciallywhentheminimizedpublicroleofwomeninancient
Greeceisatopicdealtwithmorefullyin
JACT
and
Athenaze
.
For
Athenaze
,Iknowlessabouttheauthorsattitudesaboutthepurismtowardthe

30

Socratescomesimmediatelytomind.HisphilosophyisrecordedbyhisstudentsXenophonandPlato.

60

literature.Idoknowthatoneoftheauthors,Balme,wrote
Athenaze
inreactiontoboth
thegrammartranslationmethodfoundinmanyVictoriantexts31aswellastheoverly
grammarlight,narrativedrivenearlyeditionofthe
CambridgeLatinCourse.
Further,he
waswritingatatimethatheperceivedasprecariousforthestudyofclassicallanguages
(
TheTelegraph
,2012).Hislistofculturaltopics,asaresult,looksmorelikealistof
greatesthitsofAncientGreekliterature.Thechoicesoftopicmakesenseinlightof
perceptionsofstudydecliningtothepointofnonexistence.
Itisworthnotingthateachculturalessayistiedtothereadinginatopical
fashion.Forexample,whentheadaptedstoryofOdysseusblindingthecyclops(
Odyssey
,
book9)istoldinchapter7of
Athenaze
(
HoCyclops
),
Athenaze
discussesHomer,the
Odysseys
author.
Theculturalessaysin
Athenaze
arebalanced.Theessayaboutwomenslivesin
chapter4(3536)coversthesameinformationthatwascoveredaboutwomenslivesin
theprevioussection.Itfurthergoesontofindtheplacesintheliteraturewherewomen
areeitheraddressed(Xenophons
Oikonomikos
)orarecharactersindrama(Euripidess
Electra
).BalmeandLawallfurtherelaborateonhowwomenleftthehometoattend
religiousfestivalsand,then,finishwithaquotefromthepoet,Semonides:Thegods
madeherofhoney,andblessedisthemanwhogetsher(1990:36).
4.4.4Havingitbothways
Ultimatelyitispossibletohavebothahighinterestnarrativeandapictureof
societythatismorecomplete.Atriskofdigressing,IpointtoHansrbergs
Lingua
ThoughIhastentopointoutthatRouses
GreekBoyatHome
appearedjustafterthistimeperiod,soBalme
wasnottheonlyonewiththisconcern.http://bit.ly/1DcgSE0
31

61

LatinaperSeIllustrata
.Tobesure,thestoryinthebookcentersitselfonapatrician
Romanfamily,butinadditiontothenearlywhollymaleworldspresentedin
JACT,
we
seewomen,childrenandslavesdepictedassomethingotherthanbackgroundcharacters.
Thechildrenofthefamilytakecenterstageinchapter3.Theslavemasterrelationshipis
portrayedfarmorefullythanin
Athenaze
inchapter4.Therelationshipsamongthe
children,theirmotherandthehouseholdslavesisshowninchapter5.Theadventuresof
arunawayslaveandhisgirlfriendareshowninchapter8(Oerberg,2003).Icouldgoon,
butmypointshouldbeclear.Itispossibletobroadenthesocietalperspectivepresented
andneithercompromisethepedagogynorpresentlopsidedviewsoftheculture.
Additionally,thetextof
LinguaLatinaperSeIllustrata
neveroncebreaksintoamodern
languagetoexplainRomanculturalnorms.

4.5Talkingaboutthelanguageitself
OneofthelastthingsIwanttolookatissomeofthegrammartalkwithinthe
lessonsthemselves.Whilethisiscertainlynotthemainpointofthisstudy,itisworth
takingalookatthewaysthattheauthorspresentthegrammarportionsoftheirbooks.
AncientGreekAlive
directsstudentstomakeuseoftranslationeseatseveral
pointsinthebook.Thisnotionisintroducedanddescribedasanartificiallanguagethat
isextremelyusefulinlearningGreek(AGA,1999:66).Theideaisnottocreatean
idiomaticallybeautifultranslation,butonethatlaysthegrammaticalstructureofAncient
Greekbare.Hereistheauthorsexampleofhowtodoit:

62

(4.6)

normalEnglish:Ithinkthischildisfoolish.
translationese:Iconsiderthisherechildtobefoolish.(AGA,1999:66)
Ascanbeseen,translationeseliesatapointsomewherebetweenidiomatic

Englishthirdlineandthesecondlineofatypicallinguisticthreelinetranscription.
(4.7)

nomizo
tonde
ton
thinkI
this
ACC
here det
ACC
Ithinkthischildisfoolish.

paida
child
ACC

einai
be
INF

moron
foolish
ACC

WhileIwouldhesitatetocalltranslationeseinterlanguage,therearedefinitely
somesimilarities.Inthetranslationese,insteadofmakinganEnglishlikeAncientGreek,
whichwouldbemoretypicalofaninterlanguage,theideaistomakean
AncientGreeklikeEnglish.WhileSLAtheoriesgenerallydonotaddressthe
targettonativelanguagedirection,itisthetraditionaldirectionofbuildingan
understandingofthetargetlanguageinclassicallanguages.32
AGA
isbothconformingto
theconventionofAmericanclassicallanguageclassroominusingEnglishtocreatean
understandingofAncientGreekandprovidingstudentswithausefultechniquetobuild
thatunderstandingwithinthecontextofatypicalclassroom.
Whilethisattitudetowardthetargetlanguagemayseemoddtoteachersof
modernlanguages,itishardlyuniquetoAncientGreektextbooks.
JACT
alsostates,this
runninggrammariswrittentohelpstudentsunderstandGreekandtranslate
fromGreek
intoEnglish
(originalemphasis,GVE,1992:10).Thebackcoverof
Athenaze
proclaims
thatitsexercisesintranslationfromandintoGreekareintegratedthroughout(1990).

32

InmanyLatinandGreektextbooks,andcertainlytheclassroomsIwastaughtin,werarelybotheredwith
thepossibilityofunderstandingtheselanguagesasthemselves.InthisrespectLatinpedagogyisstartingto
change.ImnotsureGreekisthere.Yet.

63

Theemphasisinclassicallanguageteachingtendsstronglytowardinterpretingthetarget
languageviameansofthenativelanguage,evenifthebooksaysfluencyofreading
(Athenaze,1990:vi).
Laterin
AncientGreekAlive
,studentsaretoldtoalwayslookfortheverbsfirst
whentranslating(AGA,1999:73).OnceagainthisadvicegoesagainstwhatSLA
theoriesofL2acquisitiontellus.Butasmatterofpersonalanecdote33IrecallmyLatin34
teachertellingmetodotheexactsamethingwhenLatinsentencesbecametricky.
Workingfromtargetlanguagetonativelanguageis,broadlyspeaking,anormofthe
classicsclassroom.35

4.6LanguageSocializationinAncientGreektextbooks
Asoutlinedintheliteraturereviewsection,LanguageSocializationistrickywith
AncientGreek,sinceitisgenerallynotspoken.
AncientGreekAlive
openswithaseries
ofninescriptsthataremeanttointroducethestudentstoAncientGreekinawaythat
theyfindmostnaturalandleastintimidating(AGA,1999:xvii).Infact,theveryfirst
(andlast)AncientGreekthatstudentsseeisthis.
(4.8)

,
,
,(AGA,1999:xxiv,273)
Sincethebookhasattemptedtopositionitselfasuserfriendlythroughout,the

33

Notthesingularofdata.
IcannotexpresshowtightlyAncientGreekistiedtoLatinwithoutbreakingintoalengthydigression.
WhilenotallLatinistsareHelleniststoo,theyareattheveryleastawareofthemassiveliterarydebtclassical
LatinliteratureowestoAncientGreek.Thereverseisnotalwaystrue,asLatininfluenceonliteraryGreek
wasmuch,muchweakerforreasonsofchronology.
35
ThoughthatnormischanginginLatinclassroomsintheUnitedStates.FindinganAncientGreek
classroomintheUnitedStatesistrickyatbest.
34

64

studentandteacherintroductorycommentswithwordslike
love,happily
and
joy
forthe
studentsand
reassured,enhance,rewarded
and
enthusiasm
fortheteachers(AGA,1999:
xv,xvii),setsupawhollydifferenttonethanotherbooks.Giventhefriendlyand
welcomingtones,whatwouldtheappropriatewordstobeginsuchabookbe?Whynot
this:
(4.9)

chairete,
o
hello
2.PL
o
Hello,friends.

philoi
friends

Thebookalsocloseswiththeexactsamewords,since
chairete
canmean
goodbyeaswellashello.Itisaneattrickofputtingthestudentsintoasocialstateof
mindfromtheveryoutset.Italsoallowsfortheteachertogreetstudentsappropriately
accordingtogender,awayAncientGreekismuchmoreakintoSpanishthantoEnglish.
Thusthestudentsaresetupforthesituatedlearningthatensuesoverthefollowingnine
scripts.
JACT
and
Athenaze
situatethestudentsinwaysthataredifferentfrom
Ancient
GreekAlive
yetaresimilarenoughtoeachotherthatIwillnotbothertoexploreboth.
ThefollowingfiguresaresamplesfromthefirstAncientGreekpresentedin
Athenaze
thatisnotintendedfortheteachingofthealphabet.

65

Figure4.12Thefirstpageoflanguageinstructionin
Athenaze
(1990:1)
Ascanbeseen,thereadingpassageisdefinitelygivencontext,particularlywith

66

theimageofthemancarryingthesheepinFigure4.10.Sincethestatueisanexampleof
ancientGreekmaterialcultureandamplifiedwiththeAncientGreektextbelowit,it
furtherservestobringtheculturetostudentsinafullyGreekcontext.Althoughstudents
maynothaveafullcontextofancientGreeksocietyinmind,theyprobablyarenot
seeingitasanagrariansociety.36

Figure4.13ThesecondpageoflanguageinstructioninAthenaze(1990:2)
BoththeimageinFigure4.12andthenarrativeinFigure4.13worktodispelthe
notionofancientGreeceasanurbansociety.Theproblemisthatthemostimportant
words,fromaculturalstandpoint,areAncientGreek.Howdowegetstudentstoderive
meaningfromthem?
Ascanbeseen,thewordsareglossed,soononelevelstudentshavemeaning.

JACTs
firstbrushwithAncientGreeksetsthelanguageinamaritimesetting,whichisprobablyless
unexpected.
36

67

Thisglossingofvocabulary(orphrases)allowsforstudentstofindthemeaningsand
syntacticpatternsratherthanstrictlyfavoringafewgifted,analyticallyminded
individuals[who]respondwelltoanemphasisonformalgrammar,whichwas
fashionableforcenturies(Hanks,2013:421).While
Athenaze
hasweaknessesinlexical
use,asoutlinedinprevioussectionsinthischapter,italsohasanaturalfrequency
distributionoflemmasasseeninFigure4.5(above)andthefollowingtwofigures.

Figure4.14Frequencyandlemmacoveragecurvesfor
Athenaze
section8A

68

Figure4.15Frequencyandlemmacoveragecurvesfor
Athenaze
section16B
Intheveryleast,thebluefrequencycurvesmatchingnaturalfrequencycurves
helpgiveahighpriorityintheirteachingandlearningtothemostnormalpatternsof
usageassociatedwithparticularwords(Hanks,2014:421).Asseeninthesection,
Highfrequencywords,allofthetextsgettothemajorityofMajors50%coveragelist.
While
Athenaze
(ortheothertwotextsforthatmatter)maynothaveusedheavy
computingtogetahandleonthemostimportantwordstopresent,theredoesseemtobe
asenseofwhatwordsareimportanttothelexisofAncientGreek,whichisasitshould
be.Alexicalsyllabusgoeshandinhandwithagrammaticalsyllabus(Hanks,2013:
425).
Whatstudentsdonothaveinfigures4.12and4.13isasenseofgrammar.The
grammarinstructionimmediatelyfollowingthereadingpassageinfigure4.13focuseson

69

subjectagreementinverbs,ofwhichonly3rdpersonsingularisusedinthepassage,and
gender/caseagreementbetweennounsanddefinitearticles(Athenaze,1990:45).While
studentsaretoldthat
tonkleron
(thefarm)isanobjectinthegrammarinstruction,objects
andaccusativecasearementionedinneitherthevocabularylistinfigure4.12northe
glossesinfigure4.13.Thesamegoesfornounandadjectiveagreement.Studentsareleft
toconstructthatinformationwithonlythelexicalinformationprovidedin4.12and4.13.

70

5.Results
5.1ThepictureofAncientGreeklanguagepresented
5.1.1Vocabularyasastandinformorphologyandsyntax
Admittedly,vocabularyisbutonefacetoflearningalanguage,butaspointedout
inthemethodologychapter,neithermorphologynorsyntaxworksasaneasytomeasure
metricforsimilaritytothelanguagebeingacquired.Lexiconisveryeasytomeasure.
5.1.2Highfrequencywords
Asstatedinthestudychapter,nobookincludesthewholeofMajors50%
coveragelistaswordstobelearned.Whilenosingleomissionofoneofthesewordsisa
deathblowtoastudentsunderstanding,skippingthemcanhurt.Forexample,the
collocation
panuge
(anemphaticyes)occurs19timesinPlatos
Republic
,book1.To
giveanideaoftherelativeimportanceoftheword,theDCCCoreVocabularylists
ge
as
the59thmostcommonwordinAncientGreek(Francese,2014).Thatfrequencylevel
puts
ge
nearthebottomofthe50%coveragelist.Bycomparison,thatisaboutthesame
asomittingtheword
most
fromthestudyofEnglish.
Most
is99thmostcommonwordin
Englishandnearthebottomofthe50%coveragelistinEnglish(OxfordDictionaries,
2015).ItisnotimpossibletoimagineusingEnglishwithout
most
,butitwouldeventually
forceastudenttolearnthatwordindependentoftextbookorteacher.
Butthisdiscussionsomewhatmissesthemarkabout
ge
.AtticGreekofthe5th
centuryBCEthetargetdialectandtimeofthebooksinthisstudyhadapitchaccent
andnotastressaccent(Allen,1968:106).Thisfactisimportant,becauseaspeakers

71

intonationcontributestothemeaningofanutterance(Gee,2014:28).Ifphonological
bandwidthistakenupbytone,howdospeakersgetacrosstheinformationthatEnglish
speakersuseintonationfor?Hereisonesurmise.PerhapstheGreeksusedparticles
becausetheycouldnotexpresstheirattitudesthroughpitchaswecaninEnglish(AGA,
1999:74).Ifindthisstatementironicgiventhat
AncientGreekAlive
isthetextthat
missedoneoftheparticlesonMajors50%coveragelist.Itisdoublyironicinthatavery
briefdiscussionof
ge
itsonlyappearanceinthebookknowntomeisonthesame
page.
Theuseof
autos
atlowerthannativespeakerfrequenciespresentsarelated
problem.Theproblemhereisthat
autos
isoneofmanydeicticwordsinAncientGreek.
Deicticstiespeechandwritingtocontext(Gee,2014:9).Sinceeachofthebooksin
thisstudyisusingnarrativesthatrelyoncontexttodriveexposuretothelanguage,it
wouldonlymakesensethatdeixiswouldbepartofthelanguagepresentedevenifitis
nevermadeanexplicitpartofinstruction.
While
AncientGreekAlive
managestousethelemma
autos
ataratesimilartothe
referencecorpusand
JACT
isclosetomeetingthatfrequency,
Athenaze
doesnoteven
comeclose.Itisasifthatparticularkindofdeixisismissing.Andinfact,ifyoulookat
Athenazes
referencegrammar,
autos
isdescribedasanadjectiveanditspronomialuses
arerelegatedtoanoteinthetext(1990:224225).InthemainbodyofthetextBalme
andLawallstate,thereisno3rdpersonpronoun(Athenaze,1990:50).Inamore
linguisticmodeofanalyzingAncientGreek,wecouldcategorize
autos
asadeterminer,
whichwouldplaceitasMajors50%coveragelistandtheDCCcorevocabulary

72

rankingsuggestinanimportantgroupofwords.Interestingly,
AncientGreekAlive
is
theonlybookoutofthethreethatplacesafulldiscussionof
autos
inthefront10%ofthe
book.
JACT
placesitjustafter25%ofthewayintothetext,and,while
Athenaze
placesit
aboutasfarinas
JACT
,itcompletelyunderrepresentsthewordsrelativeimportancein
AncientGreekwithinthenarratives.Lookingatthismismatch,itgivesmepause.Ifthe
authorsof
Athenaze
arenotconfidentenoughtouseadeicticwordlike
autos
atitsproper
frequency,aretheytrulybuildingenoughcontextintheirnarratives?Geesinsightmight
suggestnot.
5.1.3Lowerfrequencywords
Sincethereisadisparityamongthebooksinthenumberofvocabularyitemsfor
memorizationpresentedtostudents,itwouldservetoreasonthatthelinguisticskillsof
studentswithAncientGreekwouldlikewisevarydependingonthebooktheywere
exposedto.Some73%to80%ofvariationinreadingabilityinanL2istiedtothesizeof
thereadersL2vocabulary(Schmitt,2010:4).Whilethescriptedportionsof
Ancient
GreekAlive
maygetstudentsacclimatedtoAncientGreekearlyon,theyareleftata
seriousvocabularydeficitcomparedtostudentsworkingwith
JACT
.Likewisethesame
istruefor
Athenaze
,butstudentsworkingwiththatbookhaveasecondbookandmore
vocabularyitemstolookforwardtousingtobuildtheirknowledgeandthuscuttheir
vocabularydeficit.
IntheMiltonandAlexioustudy,avocabularylevelofseveralthousandwordsis
neededforfluency(2009).Likewise,somewhereontheorderof2,000to3,000word
familiesareneededfor95%coverageofEnglish(Schmitt,2010:7).SinceAncientGreek

73

runsupcoverageataratefasterthanEnglish,thatsame95%coverageshouldtakefewer
wordfamiliestogetthere.Evenso,itshouldbeonaboutthesameorderofmagnitude.In
anycase,whetherdecreasingtheneedforadictionarywhilereadingAncientGreekor
merelyincreasingreadingcomprehension,alargervocabularyinAncientGreekis
nothingbutabenefitforastudent.
5.1.4Thepowerofinterlinguisticregularity
SinceIhavebeendiscussingcontext,Iwouldliketomakeadigressionintoone
wayinwhichthebooksencouragestudentstoincreasetheirvocabularythrougha
peculiaritythatAncientGreekandEnglishshare.
ThisareawhereAncientGreekandEnglishlineupsomewhatwellisinregular
meaningbetweenthelanguages.RegularpolysemyiswhenawordAwithmeaningsa
i
anda
hasatleastoneotherwordBwiththemeaningsb
andb
,whicharesemantically
j
i
j
distinguishedfromeachotherinexactlythesamewayasa
anda
(ApresjaninHanks,
i
j
2013:3556).Hanksgivestheexamplesof
cheap
,
expensive
and
lovely
whenusedto
modify
book
and
present
.Onthesurfacethisphenomenonmaynotseemtoapplyacross
languages.Whereregularpolysemysaysthatwecanbuildasenseofregularitywhen
combiningwordswithinalanguage,interlinguisticregularitydoesthesamethingfor
learnersbuildingvocabulary.Thebooksinthestudyencouragethisexactconcept,
particularlywiththeregularrelationsbetweenGreekcompoundverbsandEnglish
phrasalverbs.Hereisatypicalexamplefrom
JACT
.

74

(5.1)

sendacross(GVE,1992:44)
diapempomai
acrosssendI
Isendacross.

(5.2)

crossing,onceacross(nom.pl.m.)(GVE,1992:44)
diabantes
acrossgo.
PARTICIPLE
N
OM.PL.M
(those)goingacross
Aswecansee,whiletheorderingofmorphemesdoesnotmatchbetweenthe

languages,themeaningsbetweenthelanguagesareregular.
JACT
highlightsthisfactby
placinghyphensbetweenthemorphemesexactlyasshowninthefirstlineof5.1.While
neither
Athenaze
nor
AncientGreekAlive
makethemorphemedivisionquitesoexplicit,
theybothencouragestudentstotakewordsapartinthisfashion.Iwouldnotbesurprised
tofindthatothertextbooksdothesame,butthebooksinthisstudynotonlyshowthe
interlinguisticregularpolysemyasanintellectualtoolbutasawaytomakemeaning
withinthecontextofthenarrative.

5.2Gettingtotheoriginalliterature
Both
AncientGreekAlive
and
JACT
deliverthegoodsintermsoforiginal
literature.Thelastfourlessonsin
AncientGreekAlive
dropSaffireandFreissnarratives
writteninAncientGreekforactualliterature.Tobesure,theextractsareshort.Fifteen
linesof
OedipusRex
makeupthewholeofthereadingforLesson54.
JACT
hasamuch
moreextensiveofferingoftheoriginalliteraturecomprisingthelasttwounitsofthe
book.Asnotedinthelexicalanalysisinthestudychapter,theseofferingsarequiteunlike
thereferencetextofPlatos
Republic
,book1.Thesedifferencesarequiteeasytoexplain.

75

Theproblem,particularlywith
JACTs
selections,isthatthewholeofthebookis
buildingtowardAtticGreekwritersandsuddenlyawholenewdialectofAncientGreek
isthrownin.Tobesure,HomersepicsareatthecoreofliteraturewritteninAncient
Greek,butistherevalueinheadingdownonetrack,AtticGreek,toswitchtoother
tracks,IonianandEpicGreek,attheend?
JACT
certainlypresentsanaccuratepictureof
AncientGreekintermsofthelanguagesvariation,andthatpictureisoneofmany
dialects.
AncientGreekAlive
alsogetstothegoods,butitsselectionsaresomuchmore
limited.Andwithgoodreason.Thepublisherisasmallerhousethatdoesnothavethe
resourcesthatCambridgeUniversityPresshadwhenputting
JACT
together.Asnoted
earlier,JACThadalargesumofmoneytouse.AncientGreekAlivewaswrittenbytwo
peoplefeelingtheneedtoprovideanalternativetothewaystheyhadbeentaught(AGA,
1999:xv).

5.3ThepictureofGreeksociety
ThepicturesofancientGreeksocietythateachbookpresentsissomewhat
hitormiss.
5.3.1Slavery
Both
JACT
and
Athenaze
missthemarkwiththeirpresentationofslavery.
JACT
minimizesit,asoneofDendrinosscritiquesofEFLtextbookssuggestscan
happen.Theproblemsoftheilliteratemassesareindeedminimized.Infact,thereis
evidencethatslaveswerenotalwaysnativespeakersofAncientGreekandthattheywere
depictedincomicplaysas
stupid,stammering,
andrandybarbarians(emphasisadded,

76

Wilson,2006:664).Thefactisthattherewereslaves,andtheydidnotalwaysspeak
AncientGreekfluently.Thereweremanyslaves,andtheywerenotalwayseasytotell
frompoorcitizens.Theminimizationoftheroleofslavesinthetextbooksnarratives
necessarilyimpoverishesthenarrative.
Asseeninthestudyportion,the
Athenaze
presentsamockingandbelittling
treatmentofslaves.While
JACT
hasamuchmorelimitedpicture,italsoputsslavesina
positionoflowagencybyaddressingtheminaculturallyappropriatefashionas
pais
(child).Theproblemisthattheseattitudesdonotfullyreflecttherealityofthesituation.
Whileliterarysourcespaintslavesasdeservingoftheirslavery,manygravestelaewith
touchinglypersonalinscriptionsweresetupforloyalslavesandfaithfulnursesbytheir
mastersandshowthattheirrelationshipsweremorecomplexintherealworldthanin
philosophicaltheory(Wilson,2006:665).Ofcoursethesedeeplypersonalrelationships
shouldbeheldincontrastwiththe20,000slavesatthesilverminesofLauriumwho
defectedfromtheAthenianswhentheSpartansinvaded(Wilson,2006:665).Slavery
wasmuchmorecomplexthanthehintsofslaveryin
JACT
orthecomicstock
characterizationofXanthiasin
Athenaze
.
Perhapstheproblembehindtheminimizedappearanceofslavesistwofold,both
ofwhichhaverootsinthesocialstructuresofAmericaandEngland.Thefirstpartofitis
thatEnglishspeakersperceivetheancientGreeksaswhitepeople.FormodernGreeks,
racializedHellenism,then,providesarouteforGreekAmericatogainaccessto
whiteness(Anagnostou,2009:93).Ifthisroutetowhitenessisopento
GreekAmericans,itisnecessarythattheancientGreekswerealsowhite.Sinceancient

77

Greecewasaslavesociety,aseriousconsiderationofslaveryinancientGreececould
bringupthespecterofslaveryinAmerica,whichcontinuestohaveconsequenceseven
now.
Manyofusblackandwhitealikehavebeentaughtthatraceandracism,like
politicsandmoney,areimpolitetopicsbestleftunexploredwithstrangers(Rooks,
2014).
Forcingustoconfrontourpastinregardtoracerelationsismerelyone
uncomfortablepartofthediscussionaboutslavery.Italsoallowstheconsiderationof
classstructurewithintheEnglishspeakingworld.Thisconsiderationispotentiallyless
welcomeattheplaceswhereAncientGreekistaughteliteschoolseithersecondaryor
tertiary(Kitchellet.al.,1996:408)asitcoulddistractfromtheinstructionofthe
languageitself.
Toamplify:whileanysuccessfultextbookmustcoverthewealthy,
literatureproducingpartofancientGreeksociety,italsoneedstocovertheenslaved
portionofthatsociety,too,orriskimpartingaskewedpictureofancientGreece.
5.3.2Women
Ontheotherhand,womenarepresentedinamuchmorethoughtfulmannerin
both
JACT
and
Athenaze
.
Given
JACT
sliterarybent,itshouldcomeasnosurprisethattherearefewer
womenoverall,butwhentheydoappearwegetaninsightintoculturalattitudestoward
womenatleastthoseofthemalecitizenry.In
JACT
sections11,12and13(Text,1992:
97127),Neairasprosecutionholdsherupasalawbreakerwhomustbepunished,soby
extensioneverythingabouthershouldbewrongbythenormsoftheAtheniancitizenry.

78

Sheisa
hetaira
,whichinitsmostbasicsensemeanscompanion,butitisamuchmore
culturallyrichpointthanasimpledefinitiongivesaway.
Hetairaswereoftenslaves,althoughwhentheywerenottheywerefrequentlyof
thenoncitizenclasses.Whiletheywerefrequentlyprostitutes,theywerealso
companionstomenatsymposiumsandfestivalswheretheirliteraryeducationandwit
madethemprizedcompanions.Theyweresoprizedascompanionsthatdespitethe
potentialfordomesticstrife,theabilitytosupportahetairainanappropriatefashionwas
astatementofamansstatusinsociety(Cancik&Schneider,2005:vol.6,290291).The
inclusionofNeairaasahetairaisfactuallyaccurate,butglossesoverapointsofar
outsideofstudentexperiencethattheglossofferedinthebook(prostitute,courtesan)
(GVE,1992:343)doesnotevenbegintocovertherolethatthesewomenplayedin
ancientGreeksociety.Thesimpleglossof
hetaira
alsostandsinstarkcontrasttothe
glossfor
hetairos
,whichismorphologicallytransparenttostudentsofAncientGreekas
thesamewordwithoneappliedtomen(
hetairos
)andtheothertowomen(
hetaira
).
JACTglosses
hetairos
asmalecompanion(GVE,1992:343).Whetherthedifferences
inglossshouldbeattributedtoancientGreeksocietalnormsormodernsocietalnormsis
beyondthescopeofthisstudy,butstudentscertainlywillnoticethedifferenceinglosses
iftheylookattheglossarydefinitions.
OfthetwotextbookspresentingancientGreekwomeninthenarratives,
Athenaze
presentsthemorebalancedviewofthelivesofwomen.Thisbalancecomesaboutasa
resultofthechoiceofadomesticsettingforthenarrative.Thissettingisaradicalchoice
inlightofearlierAncientGreektextbooks,butoneoftheauthorsof
Athenaze
realized

79

thattoresuscitateeducationintheclassicsafterthe1960s
teachingmethodsalsohadto
changeandhewasamajorinfluence(TheTelegraph,2012).Oneofthoseteaching
methodsthathadtochangemayhavebeentheinclusionofbroaderportionsofsociety
intotheeducatedportionsofBritishsociety.Thechoiceofadomesticsetting,asopposed
tothetraditionalemphasisonmilitarythemes,mayhavebeenBalmespathtowardthat
inclusion.
5.3.3Cultureoutsideofeachbooksnarrative
TheonlyweaknessintheculturalessaysisthattheyarewritteninEnglishand
notAncientGreek,whichisaproblem.Researchershaveexpressedconcernabout[the
L1s]appearanceinEFLtextbooks,assumingthatthemorefrequentitspresence,the
morelikelylearnersaretouseit(Dendrinos,1992:65).Giventhatallthreetextbooks
haveexercisesthatincludethingslikereadandtranslatetheconclusionofTheLazy
Man.Learnthevocabulary(AGA,1999:113),itisnotjustlikelythatstudentswilluse
L1theyaredirectedto.EFLtextbooksarecompletelydifferent.TherearemanyEFL
textbooksthatdonotuseL1,notevenforinstrumentalpurposes(Dendrinos,1992:65),
whichisatvariancewiththegeneralpracticeinAncientGreektextbooksasseeninthis
study.
TopickupthethreadofClassicalHumanismagain,thisapproachtoeducationis
anelitist,topdown,transmissiveone(ClarkinDendrinos,1992:110).Icannotargue
againstanyofthesethings.WinstonChurchillremarkedthiswayabouthiseducation,

[Thecleverboys]allwentontolearnLatinandGreekandsplendidthingslikethat.But
IwastaughtEnglish.WewereconsideredsuchduncesthatwecouldlearnonlyEnglish

80

(1996:16).Thecleverestboysstudiedtheclassics:elitist.Theywerechosen:topdown.
Andofcourse,thewholetraditionofteachingAncientGreekistransmissive.Asfaras
DendrinosscriticismofL1useinL2textbooksgoes,Iagree.Thetextbookscouldonly
bestrengthenedbyfurtheruseofAncientGreekincontextofthesocietythatspokeit.
WherewemightpartwaysisinwhethertheClassicalHumanismimpliedinthevery
teachingofAncientGreekisworthwhileornot.Luckilythatconsiderationisbeyondthe
scopeofthisstudy,thoughtheinteractionbetweenourcultureandancientGreekculture
aswellastheportionsofourculturewhichpromotethestudyofAncientGreekfor
modernstudentscouldpresentavaluablestudy.

81

6.Conclusion
ApplyingthiskindofanalysistoaclassicallanguagelikeAncientGreekisno
mereintellectualnavelgazing.Thereisarealworldpointtoit.Thatpointiskeepingthe
crisisintheteachingofAncientGreekthatKitchelletal.describeintheir1996paper
fromgettingworse.Thepopularityofbooksandmovieslikethe
PercyJacksonandthe
Olympians
seriesorphilosophydepartmentsatuniversitiesletalonesomeofthesacred
textsofChristianitysuggestthatinterestinancientGreekcultureandthoughtisalive
andwell.Whenthatinteresttranslatesintoastudyofthelanguage,itisworthknowing
thatthetoolsthatstudentshaveforlanguagestudyaretoolsworthusing.
Adiscursiveanalysisoftextbooks,particularlyinmattersoflexisandculture,
givesusinsightintothequalityofthosetools.Theinvestigationofvocabularyis
particularlyusefulsinceitallowsanobjectivenumberstobeputontotheuseoflanguage
inthetextbook.WhileaperfectreflectionofaZipfcurveforlexicalfrequencyisnot
necessary,itissomethingthatthebooksshouldaimforinordertoreplicatelexical
frequencypatternsinnaturallanguage.Asshown,inearlystagesoflearningAncient
Greek,thereareodditiesinthelexicalfrequencycurvesthatarelikelyreflectionsof
beginningstudyinalanguage.
Thereasonadiscursiveanalysisofthepresentationofcultureisusefulisthat
studentsofclassicallanguagescannotaccessthenativeculturesofthoselanguageswith
theeasethatstudentsofamodernlanguagecanaccessthenativeculturesofmodern
languages.Itisimperativethatstudentsgetasaccurateapictureaspossiblesothatwhen

82

theyarriveattheoriginalliteraturetheyhavetheproperframeofreferencebeyond
knowledgeofthelanguageitselftoreadtheliteraturetheancientGreeksleft.
Inthefinalanalysis,Iamnotsurethisstudywillaffectanyoneschoiceof
textbook.Thereisaveryrealdegreeofteachinghowyouweretaught.Ifthisstudyyields
anyusetoanyone,Ihopethatitcastssomelightonthenatureoftextbooksinaclassical
languageclassroom,particularlytheAncientGreekclassroom.Ihopethatwhenteachers
giveconsiderationtotextbookselectiontheyconsiderthewaysthatthesetextbooksuse
theirpositionalauthorityastheybuildapictureofboththelanguageandtheculture
beinglearned.
Ialsohopetodispelthenotionthatwithoutseeingthesystem[i.e.morphology
andsyntax],thesestudents[learninginamoreCognitiveApproachsetting]haveno
contextinwhichtofixthematerialtheyarelearning,andtheycanbecometoorelianton
individualvocabularymeaningsforconstruingsenseinapassage(Kitchelletal.,1996:
398).Alargervocabularyiscorrelatedwithagreaterknowledgeofthesecondlanguage
beingstudied(Schmitt,2010:4).AncientGreek,forallofitsassociations,isnothing
morethanasecondlanguage.
Asfortheindividualtextbooks,theyhavetheirstrengthsandweaknesses.
JACT
isapowerhouse.Thebookhadmajorfinancialresourcesbehindit,andit
shows.Ithasmoreofeverythingthantheothertwobooks.Morelinguisticaccuracy,
moreunadaptedliteratureandmoretextinAncientGreekforstudentstoread.Itpresents
themostvocabulary,andifitdoesnotincludeallofMajors50%coveragelistinits
vocabularytobememorizeditatleastpresentsitinthetext.Ifitsemphasisonthe

83

literaryforcesoutdepictionsofdailylife,onecouldarguethattheauthorsof
JACT
took
thecorrectcourse:studyofAncientGreekisforreadingtheliterature.Ifonewantsto
knowabouttheculturesdailylifeaspects,therearebooksandclassesdevotedtothat
topic.IfIhadtopickonedrawbackthatgivesmepauseaboutitsuseinaclassroom,itis
theintensityof
JACT
.Itisaseriousbookaboutaserioustopic,anditneverletsup.
Athenaze
hasthefeelofahighschoolleveltextbook,despitetheneartotallackof
secondaryschoolsthatteachAncientGreek.Itsdomesticsubjectmatterthereareeven
childreninthenarrativeandslowpaceofinstructiongiveitthatfeel.Whileitisevery
bitasaimedatareadingknowledgeofancientGreekliteratureas
JACT
,itavoids
adultorientedtopicslikesexualityinancientGreece.Furthertheillustrationsinthebook
arecreditedtoCatherineBalme,whoispresumablyadaughterofoneoftheauthors.
Whiletheillustrationsareprofessionalquality,theyareveryidiosyncraticincomparison
totheillustrationsin
JACT
.Iwouldgosofarastosaythattheillustrationsin
Athenaze
aremorefittingtoanovelthanatextbook.Myperceptionof
Athenaze
asahighschool
leveltextbookisnotunsubstantiated.Nearlyhalfofthehighschoolssurveyedreported
thattheywereusing
Athenaze
(Kitchelletal.,1996:408).Thebiggestflawinthiscurrent
studyisalackofaccesstothesecondvolumeof
Athenaze
.Thevocabularydeficit
mentionedinthestudychapterislikelycorrectedinthatvolume.Whileitsdepictionof
ancientGreekcultureisbalancedandtiedtothenarrative,therearesomeminorflawsin
thelanguageitpresents.Thebiggestoftheseflawsisthelowerthanexpectedfrequency
of
autos
(3rdpersonpronoun).

84

AncientGreekAlive
isbothdifferentfromtheothertwotextbooksandflawedin
spots.Thekeydifferencefromtheothersisitsinitialconversationalscripts.These
lessonsareamajordeparturefromthetypicalAncientGreektextbookandarean
excellentwaytosocializethestudentstoalanguageandnotanintellectualcode.The
readingsinAncientGreekthemselvesaccuratelyreflecttheAesoptraditionofancient
Greeceaswellasbeinginterestingtoread.Theflawsthougharequitedamaging.The
lackofancientGreekculturewithinAncientGreekcontextsisproblematicasarethe
culturalessays.Theyarefactuallyaccurateandinteresting,butlackcertainfundamentals
ofancientGreekcultureliteraryorotherwisethatstudentsshouldalsobefamiliar
with.Theshortvocabularytomemorizelistisalsoofconcern.Ontheotherhand,the
authorsof
AncientGreekAlive
arereactingtotheGrammarTranslationtraditionthatis
commontomanyothertextbooks.Thetitleofthebookspellsouttheirambition,andof
thebooksinthisstudyIhavearealsoftspotforit.

85

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