A Discourse Analysis of Three Ancient Greek TextbooksPeter SipesThesis Defense presentation26 March 2015

Ancient Greek, the language

● Not genetically close to English

● Not genetically close to Latin, though there was much contact

● Chart hides ancient polycentrism

Graphic from Chang et al. (2015)

Ancient Greek, the language

Polycentric for sure● Epic (not shown)● Attic (pink)● Ionian (purple)● Doric (tan)● Aeolic (yellow)● Koine (not

shown)Graphic from Wikipedia

What is a language textbook?

Things you already know● Presents L2● Presents L2’s

culture

Image source: http://articles.latimes.com/2010/dec/19/travel/la-tr-gab-20101219

What is a language textbook?

Things you don’t already know● Authority● Position● Ideology

○ both L2 culture○ how L2 is presented

Image source: https://www.etsy.com/listing/124241608/ the-enchiridion-medium-adventure-time?ref=shop_home_active_16

Positioning & Authority

There can be interactive positioning in which what one person says positions another... However it would be a mistake to assume that… positioning is necessarily intentional. (Davies and Harré, 1990)

Textbooks can be “understood as the legitimate version of a society’s sound knowledge—the knowledge that every pupil has a primary responsibility to master” (Dendrinos, 1992).

Second-language textbooks carry authority by virtue of having content that is “related to other social institutions outside the school or the classroom” (Dendrinos, 1992).

A pitfall for EFL textbooks

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“EFL books… in Great Britain over-represent the white middle-class population with their concerns about holidays and leisure time, home decoration and dining out, their preoccupation with success, achievement and material wealth.” (Dendrinos, 1992: 153)

Because actually

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“Absent, or nearly absent are the great variety of minorities, people of African, Indian, Pakistanese [sic] descent who make up a considerable part of the population; and the problems of the illiterate masses are rarely or never mentioned.” (Dendrinos, 1992: 153)

Does this apply for AG textbooks?

Image from: http://www.brynmawr.edu/classics/images/pitsa-panels.jpg

● presentation of literary register○ spoken register not really

preserved● centered on Attica and Athens

○ Athens didn’t dominate Greek world of antiquity the way it does today

● literature written by the educated and urban elite○ in a rural and uneducated

society

Classical Humanism

Raphael, School of Athens from https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/The_School_of_Athens#/media/File:Sanzio_01.jpg

“Curriculum… is content-driven.”

“[It is] characterized by the desire to promote broad intellectual capacities, such as memorization and the ability to analyze, classify, and reconstruct elements of knowledge.”

“Knowledge is considered to be a set of truths which should be revealed by the authority (teacher or textbook) and mastered by the pupil” (Dendrinos, 1992: 104-105).

Methods within Classical Humanism

Grammar-Translation● traditional method● “language as an autonomous

meaning system” (Dend., 1992: 106)

● 3 steps to learning○ teach “grammar point”○ ????○ know the language

Cognitive● reaction to Behaviorist

philosophies of SLA and in C.H. according to Dendrinos

● “specific goal of language teaching is the development of linguistic competence” (Dendrindos, 1992: 107)

The study itself

The books

What they have in common

● Athenian dialect● heavy use of

narrative in instruction

● ummm….

Image source: Shakko/Wikipedia

Ancient Greek Alive● Starts with spoken language● Moves to non-Greek stories

○ Animals and Nasruddin stories○ compares to Aesop

● Vocabulary in lists○ Only in review chapters○ shortest vocab list of books in study

● Cultural essays● Grammar-Translation despite

amount of narrative (sc. “Translationese”)

JACT: Reading Greek● Narrative is a greatest hits of Greece’

s ancient literature● Vocabulary list is long enough to

reach 80% coverage○ in lists that accompany readings

● Very little cultural exposition in English

● could be used in class with Grammar-Translation or Cognitive approach

Athenaze● Narrative follows a family

○ somewhat tied to the Peloponnesian War

○ shows domestic life● Cultural essay with chapter

○ tied to narrative in some way● vocab list short

○ but there are two books● Cognitive instructional approach

Lexis

● A potentially endless, though surmountable task○ ~65 lemmas cover 50% of Ancient Greek text○ ~1,100 lemmas cover 80% of text (Major, 2008)

○ ~4,000 can pass as “fluent” (Milton & Alexiou, 2009)

● Can stand in for syntax and morphology○ this study ignores those aspects of language○ research has found lexical knowledge correlates with

reading ability (Schmitt, 2010: 4)

Lexis and Zipf curves● Blue line necessarily

reaches 100%● Red line shows long-tail

effect○ Frequency isn’t

important○ Shape is○ Not continuous

(despite appearances)● What’s hiding in the tail

is why vocabulary acquisition is so tricky

Zipf curve early in bookSee the lump near the left end of the curve? What is that doing there?

Zipf curve in the middle of the book

Zipf curve at the end of the book

Though things do get weird.Why? Different dialect or…

Zipf curve at the end of the book

… a too short passage.

Lexis and coverage

Plato’s Republic, book 1Coverage % Tokens Lemmas Note

50% 4,637 53 Shorter than Major’s short list of 65

80% 7,419 304

95% 8,810 972 Still not as long as Major’s 80% list

98% 9,088 1,276 ← Here’s where you can start guessing meanings from context

100% 9,274 1,753

Data from Steadman (2012) and Perseus (2014)

How do they stack up with lexis?

Textbook Major’s 50% coverage Total Vocabulary

JACT 61 (63 in glossary) 1,318

Ancient Greek Alive 61 682

Athenaze 59 603

Rate of lexis learning: JACT

Rate of lexis learning: AGA

Rate of lexis learning: Athenaze

Culture

● accessible for modern languages

● not as accessible for classical languages

Upper image: Steve SwayneLower image: Flickr user Agnee

Culture in narrative

Women & Slaves● both had limited roles in literary sources● textbooks uneven in presentation

○ JACT — nearly zero slaves, women presented better

○ Athenaze — domestic story, presents both more fully

○ Ancient Greek Alive — no Greek culture in the narratives!

Culture beyond narrative

● many cultural topics presented in essays outside of the Ancient Greek narrative

● textbooks again uneven in presentation○ JACT — virtually zero non-narrative cultural

presentation○ Athenaze — essays tied to narrative themes○ Ancient Greek Alive — essays only, with some

striking choices about topic