Better than any other I know, this book makes the student aware of that most elusive subtlety of language, style
Vincent J. Cleary
The Classical Outlook
By far the most attractive of the books being examined is Ruck's Ancient Greek: A New Approach. It has had the advantage of revision, and of a beautiful design.... What impresses about the inside of the book is not so much the learning theories that it represents as the teacherly qualities that it exhibits. The book seems to proceed less from an abstract formulation of how one best learns a language than from the much more practical standpoint of what students need in order to learn Greek, and of what works in the classroom. Each of the twenty-seven chapters, as well as the introductory section, proceeds with this end in view: to read Greek as Greek. The method is inductive and always develops from a context before a rule of syntax is formulated or the morphological item appears in a paradigm. Frequent exercises are provided to test for understanding and to reinforce the form or rule. As more forms are introduced, readings in paragraph form from a number of authors appear. Vocabulary helps, 'Scholia,' are provided on the same or the facing page, and are usually glossed in Greek, English being used only when necessary. Composition exercises follow, with the theme to be expressed explained by means of a Greek instruction. Thus the student is encouraged and taught to think in Greek, not English. If he does require English as an intermediate step, he is not left with the English meaning, as in the grammar-translation approach, but again and again is forced to return to an understanding of the original in its own terms. Better than any other I know, this book makes the student aware of that most elusive subtlety of language, style.
Vincent J. Cleary
The Classical Outlook
