Learning Biblical Hebrew Stem Formations through isiXhosa Stem Formations

Abstract

This article aims to help Bantu-speaking students who struggle to grasp Biblical Hebrew (BH) stem formations. To ease the learning of BH stem formations for Bantu-speaking learners, this article proposes that Bantu stem formations be used to teach BH stem formations. To realise this aim, two strategies are used. The first is to employ typology to demonstrate to learners the similarities between BH and their languages, so that they realise that their languages are similar to BH in quite significant respects. The second strategy is to present isiXhosa verb conjugations to demonstrate what BH verb conjugations are about. IsiXhosa verb conjugations are demonstrated as an analogy for BH conjugations. Tabular juxtaposition of BH stem formations with stem formations of some Bantu languages are presented to provide clear and explicit details of the discussion.