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Greek vocabulary acquisition using semantic domains
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Jun 2003 by Wilson, Mark
V. CONCLUSION
Vocabulary acquisition is a critical aspect of second language learning. However, scholars and teachers have often de-emphasized its importance both in research and in the classroom. Yet students consider vocabulary acquisition as one of their highest priorities. Current Greek vocabulary tools are based on word frequency lists and cognate word groups, both shown to be ineffective ways to gain and retain L2 vocabulary. This article introduces a new tool for learning biblical Greek vocabulary organized by semantic domains. Mastering New Testament Greek Vocabulary introduces students to 3,911 words-72% of all the words in the Greek NT. Its vocabulary acquisition approach is pedagogically superior to other tools and better facilitates long-term retention for students.
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1 An earlier draft of this paper was presented at the 54^sup th^ Annual Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in Toronto, Canada, on November 20, 2002. I wish to thank Jason Oden, my student assistant at Oral Roberts University, for some of the research that appears in this article.
2 Bernard Brandon Scott et al., Reading New Testament Greek (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1993) 1.
3 Jeffrey A. Rydberg-Cox and Anne Mahoney, "Vocabulary Building in the Perseus Digital Library," http://tantalos.perseus.tufts.edu/amahoney/vocab.co.pdf, November 14, 2002.
4 Cheryl Boyd Zimmerman, "Historical Trends in Second Language Vocabulary Instruction," in James Coady and Thomas Huckin, eds., Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997) 17.
5 James Coady, "L2 Vocabulary Acquisition: A Synthesis of the Research," in Coady and Huckin, Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 274.
6 The site's URL is http://www.swan.ac.uk/cals/calsres/index/. Another excellent web site with bibliography on second language vocabulary acquisition is http://privatewww.essex.ac.uk/vcook/slabib.html, while TESL has its own site with bibliography at http://iteslj.org/links/TESL/Articles/Vocabulary/. All these sites have on-line articles or links to articles on second language vocabulary acquisition.
7 Batia Laufer, "The Lexical Plight in Second Language Reading," in Coady and Huckin, Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 22.
8 Ibid. 31.
9 Thid. 24.
10 Paul Nation and Jonathan Newton, "Teaching Vocabulary," in Coady and Huckin, Second Language Vocabulary Acquisition 238.
11 The total word count varies between sources; I have followed William Mounce in Basics of Biblical Greek (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1993) 17. Trenchard divides these words into 736 cognate word groups in The Student's Complete Vocabulary Guide to the Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1992). Thomas A. Robinson in Mastering Greek Vocabulary (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1991) likewise divides these words into cognate word groups, but only carries these divisions down to 20 usages.
12 Bruce Metzger, Lexical Aids For Students of New Testament Greek (Princeton: Theological Book Agency, 1969) 1.
13 Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek 324.
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