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Has Anyone heard of Hamiltonian System?

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Iversen
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 Message 17 of 27
27 April 2011 at 1:19pm | IP Logged 
The original Rosetta Stone may not have been put up for pedagogical purposes, but it was very useful when Champollion wanted to learn Old Egyptian.
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DavidCarter
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Speaks: Latin

 
 Message 19 of 27
21 May 2011 at 2:05pm | IP Logged 
I also read this article and had a long correspondence with Mr Blum about it. I teach
Latin and Greek here in the UK. Interlinears have been around for many years (e.g. in
bibles) but I hadn't realised that James Hamilton built a whole method of teaching
around it.

Hamilton achieved astonishing results. I've been trying out his method on my own
students. We've read 40 stories from Ritchie's Fabulae Faciles (I made an interlinear
translation) without studying any grammar.   I have no idea how much grammar they've
taken in, but they can read new stories pretty well so their language level is high.

My feeling is that Hamilton instinctively figured out Krashen's comprehensible input
theory (when you give students new words, give them the meaning of the words at the
same time; the brain will then figure out automatically how the language works).

There's a good article summarising Hamilton's work by Henry S Salt, especially the
last sentence! Just search Google on henry salt hamiltonian.

Many interlinears are becoming available as on-demand reprints. For Greek the key ones
to get are Iliad 1-VI and Xenophon's Anabasis (faint type but usable). For Latin the
Sallust has come out and Juvenal (but the Horace is NOT an interlinear - it's mis-
titled on Google books). I always get the versions issued by Nabu Books as they zoom
the printing by 125% or so and the books are easier to read.

Hamiltonians re-arrange the words into English word order and a reader here has
complained about this. I disagree.  English word order immediately makes the sentence
clear. The Hamiltonian version of Juvenal (Corson) keeps the original word order and
the whole thing is just a jigsaw puzzle.       

Personally, I am sold on interlinears and regard the Google Books reprints of the
Hamilton Clark series as the most important event in Latin and Greek teaching for the
last 50 years.

       

Edited by DavidCarter on 21 May 2011 at 9:00pm

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William Camden
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 Message 20 of 27
21 May 2011 at 2:35pm | IP Logged 
DavidCarter wrote:
I also read this article and had a long correspondence with Mr
Blum about it. I teach
Latin and Greek here in the UK. Interlinears have been around for many years (e.g. in
bibles) but I hadn't realised that James Hamilton built a whole method of teaching
around it.

Hamilton achieved astonishing results. I've been trying out his method on my own
students. We've read 40 stories from Ritchie's Fabulae Faciles (I made an interlinear
translation) without studying any grammar.   I have no idea how much grammar they've
taken in, but they can read new stories pretty well so their language level is high.

My feeling is that Hamilton instinctively figured out Krashen's comprehensible input
theory (when you give students new words, give them the meaning of the words at the
same time; the brain will then figure out automatically how the language works).

There's a good article summarising Hamuilton's work by Henry S Salt, especially the
last sentence! Just search Google on henry salt hamiltonian.

Many interlinears are becoming available as on-demand reprints. For Greek the key ones
to get are Iliad 1-VI and Xenophon's Anabasis (faint type but usable). For Latin the
Sallust has come out and Juvenal (but the Horace is NOT an interlinear - it's mis-
titled on Google books). I always get the versions issued by Nabu Books as they zoom
the printing by 125% or so and the books are easier to read.

Hamiltonians re-arrange the words into English word order and a reader here has
complained about this. I disagree.  English word order immediately makes the sentence
clear. The Hamiltonian version of Juvenal (Corson) keeps the original word order and
the whole thing is just a jigsaw puzzle.       

Personally, I am sold on interlinears and regard the Google Books reprints of the
Hamilton Clarke series as the most important event in Classics teaching for the last 50
years.

       


If "astonishing results" were achieved, why isn't the interlinear method more popular?
Perhaps there were vested interests that didn't favour it, but there have always been
conservative barriers to new inventions, new methods, etc. These are often overcome,
but not in this case, it would seem.
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dmaddock1
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United States
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174 posts - 426 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Italian, Esperanto, Latin, Ancient Greek

 
 Message 21 of 27
21 May 2011 at 2:56pm | IP Logged 
Thanks for the article suggestion DavidCarter. I've been using Hamilton's greek Gospel of John since I
started this thread and have definitely felt my greek improve with the extensive exposure to input. Of
course, I had a fair amount of grammar learning behind me before I started.

William Camden, I think to a certain degree it has lived on in methods like Assimil which have heavy use of
bilingual dialogs. (probably not direct lineage, but the ideas are certainly similar.) This method was pretty
popular in its day, particularly with latin and greek, but the widespread teaching of those languages has also
fallen of a cliff in the last 100 years.

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DavidCarter
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United Kingdom
Joined 4695 days ago

2 posts - 3 votes
Speaks: Latin

 
 Message 22 of 27
21 May 2011 at 8:43pm | IP Logged 
William Camden, Hamilton's ideas were vehemently opposed by schoolmasters and professors.

Even today, the idea of handing out translations is simply unthinkable for most Latin
teachers; to them it is "dumbing down"(at least here in the UK, maybe not in the US).     

For example, I don't know of any Latin or Greek teaching books that provide answer keys.
The student is required to work it out for himself. This is held to be intellectually
rigorous and a virtue.

Edited by DavidCarter on 21 May 2011 at 8:45pm

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Volte
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Switzerland
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 Message 23 of 27
22 May 2011 at 2:43am | IP Logged 
DavidCarter wrote:
William Camden, Hamilton's ideas were vehemently opposed by schoolmasters and professors.

Even today, the idea of handing out translations is simply unthinkable for most Latin
teachers; to them it is "dumbing down"(at least here in the UK, maybe not in the US).     

For example, I don't know of any Latin or Greek teaching books that provide answer keys.
The student is required to work it out for himself. This is held to be intellectually
rigorous and a virtue.


Adler's does. Latinium has links to it.

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FuroraCeltica
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Speaks: English*, Spanish, French

 
 Message 24 of 27
01 June 2011 at 1:14pm | IP Logged 
This looks like an excellent system


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