ANCIENT GREEK WORKSHOP - BASIC

The 'Beginners' Greek' classes are intended for those students who have not attended the Liceo Classico or studied ancient Greek for A-levels (maturità classica) and wish to attain a level of proficiency suitable for the study of ancient literature, philosophy, archaeology, ancient history and epigraphy.

The course is divided into three parts of 30 hours each. Attendance and examination in each part yield 2 CFU, the sum being of 6 CFU for the total 90 hours.

At the end of the Laboratorio 1 students will:
- know the alphabet and its orthographic rules;
- know the rudiments of Greek elementary grammar (1st and 2nd declensions; present and imperfect verbs);
- be able to read texts in ancient Greek aloud;
- acquire methods of linguistic analysis;
- understand the basic structures of Greek and be able to adequately render them into Italian

The teaching of Beginners' Greek is of the 'blended' type: each week there will be a 'traditional' class held by the lecturer (always on Mondays) and another class which will take place online, on the Moodle platform. Attendance of the online class and completion of all set exercises is an integral part of the course and is compulsory. For details, please see the 'Teaching methods' section below.

Attendance of classes, active participation in online learning activities and individual study will enable students to:
- KNOW the basic linguistic terminology of Greek; the alphabet and its orthography, especially accentuation rules; the pronunciation of ancient Greek as taught in the Italian school tradition; the basics of elementary Greek syntax.
- UNDERSTAND texts in ancient Greek; the linguistic complexity of the language; the strategies that allow us to translate an ancient text into a modern language.
- ACQUIRE basic Greek vocabulary; critical judgement concerning the best translation choices; ability to evaluate one's work and learning progress; ability to explain one's translation choices to other members of the class and its teacher; ability to discuss a text in a group; ability to explain clearly the grammar and structure of a language;
- LEARN how to take notes and use online resources; how to manage time and deadlines set each week; how to evaluate the level of difficulty of a text; how to answer grammatical and theoretical questions of increasing difficulty correctly.

Compulsory: adequate proficiency in Italian, which will enable the student not only to attend classes, but above all to translate Greek into Italian adequately.
Desirable:
- ability to analyze grammatically and logically a text in Italian
- ability to meet the requirements of intensive language learning and its weekly deadlines

Greek alphabet and orthography; nominal and verbal morphology (1st and 2nd declensions; 1st class adjectives; occlusive stems of the 3rd declension; present and imperfect system); outlines of syntax (copula phrases; causal, temporal and declarative clauses; nominal infinitive); reading, grammatical analysis and translation of short sentences or passages in Greek .

Because of the nature of this course (intensive language learning) attendance is compulsory.

The required coursebook is:

P. Agazzi - M. Vilardo, Hellenisti. Corso di lingua e cultura greca. Terza edizione. Zanichelli 2014. (copies can be purchased at the Cafoscarina or Toletta bookshops; this edition is out of print and hence not purchasable from the publisher's website).

Students will also find useful to own the Greek-Italian dictionaries by F. Montanari (Loescher) or L. Rocci (Dante Alighieri Editrice) or to consult the paper or online version of the Greek-English dictionary by Liddell-Scott-Jones (http://stephanus.tlg.uci.edu/lsj/#eid=1&context=lsj ).

At the end of the course there will be a final written exam. It will consist in

1) 10 short questions on phonology and morphology topics targeted during the course: during this part of the examination grammars, dictionaries and other sources will not be allowed. The highest score is 10/10 (1 point for each correct answer).

2) the translation of 5 short sentences, or a short text; dictionaries will be allowed but not grammars or other books. The highest score for this part is 20/20 (4 points for each sentence / part of the translation).

The exam will take place over 2 1/2 hours. The highest score for both parts is 30/30. The final mark will be expressed according to the grades: ottimo, buono, discreto, sufficiente, insufficiente.
During the last week of the course a mock exam text will be uploaded on Moodle.

The course teaching method will be of the 'blended' type. Teaching will be divided into traditional classes (always on Mondays) and online classes (on www.moodle.unive.it), which students will be able to 'attend' from their computers at any moment of the week commencing on Monday afternoon.
Traditional classes will consist in a short presentation by the lecturer concerning new topics of Greek grammar, followed by individual or group exercises through which the students will learn how to translate and consolidate their knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary. Homework will not be assigned.
The online class will be divided into short theoretical explanations of new areas of grammar (texts, commented powerpoint, podcast audio file) followed by individual activities either as interactive quizzes (with immediate auto-correction) and translation exercises which students will upload on Moodle for correction. Each of the parts into which the online class is divided will be available online at the beginning of each teaching week. Learning activities and exercises will have progressive deadlines throughout the week, so that students will be encouraged to learn gradually and prepare throughout the week.
Online classes are an integral part to the course. Attendance, active work on exercises and translations and participation in the students' forum are a PREREQUISITE for admission to the final exam. Students need to understand these rules by reading the 'patto formativo' file on Moodle. Access passwords will be provided on the first day of classes and upon request by writing to prof. Tribulato.
It is ESSENTIAL that those who attend the course have the coursebook: please purchase it in advance. Photocopies will not be provided.

Italian

The optimal functioning of this course can only be guaranteed if students enrol within the first week of classes. Enrolment won't be allowed after the end of the second week of classes. For enquiries or further information students are kindly requested to contact Prof. Tribulato BEFORE the beginning of courses.

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