Discipleship
Southwestern Journal of Theology
Volume 50, No. 2 - Spring 2008
Managing Editor: Malcolm B. Yarnell III
By Russell T. Fuller and Kyoungwon Choi. Invitation to Theological Studies. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2006. 364 pp. $49.00.
Warning: the use of this grammar could revolutionize the study of Hebrew. Follow all instructions. Use only if the desire is to learn the language. Mix with diligence to achieve desired result: ability to read Hebrew.
Kregel has published not only the text of Invitation to Biblical Hebrew produced by Fuller and Choi, but also a set of six DVDs containing two semesters’ worth of lectures through the grammar. What ignites the use of the grammar and the DVDs, however, is undoubtedly the workbook. The grammar gives the student the raw data. The DVDs present Fuller lectureing through the grammar. And the workbook- if used- will drill students on the material until the fundamentals of the language are instinctive for them. Grammar, DVDs, workbook: a worth combination.
Fuller and Choi honed this material through years of classroom use. This reviewer studied under both as they were perfecting this material and method. The process they taught is the method that involves several iterations through the material in different formats: lecture, reading, carefully crafted questions, and targeted drills.
Working through a language in this manner takes the student again and again through the material. Students of Hebrew who faithfully work through this material find that the fundamentals of the Hebrew language become part of the furniture of their minds. The process may seem extensive and demanding, but it gives students a real shot at learning a very foreign, very difficult language.
There are debates among Hebrew grammarians as to the best ap- proach to learning the language. The student who comes to this grammar will combine the fundamentals of the language with a core of memoriza- tion. The method of this grammar, with its brilliant drills, may make it the best approach to learning Hebrew. The drills will challenge students not only to reproduce the material but master it.
Great teachers, like great coaches, emphasize the fundamentals. Rus- sell Fuller and Kyoungwon Choi understand the fundamentals of the Hebrew language, and their grammar presents these fundamentals in systematic detail, with an array of pithy mnemonic devices that make the learning of a difficult language enjoyable.
