Part III
In parts I and II we explored the various differences
between reading English and Hebrew. Hebrew is more concise,
with each letter having vital significance, like in a
chemical formula, so that an error in one letter can
completely change the meaning. Hebrew words are complex in
structure, with prefixes and suffixes. Vowels complicate the
reading process and also contribute to changed
meaning.
11. "New" words and abbreviations
When reading English, if the reader meets a word he has not
seen before, one can assume the reader will not know its
meaning.
Classical Hebrew is based on only a few hundred basic
"roots" and words are developed from them through well
defined conjugations. Therefore, when the efficient reader
of Hebrew meets a "new" word, he will be able to take an
intelligent guess as to its meaning. However, an inefficient
reader will be baffled. Similarly, the efficient reader will
usually recognize the word to which an abbreviation is
referring, whereas an inefficient reader will not easily be
able to recognize it.
English language books tend to use larger fonts and more
graphics. Classic Torah works remain as they were (except
for some improvement in clarity). Therefore, the gap between
the proficiency of reading that a person needs for secular
studies in English and the proficiency of reading that he
needs for Talmudic studies in Hebrew is slowly widening.
Furthermore, one of the advantages which Hebrew has over the
European languages is its logical structure: once the reader
recognizes the root of a word, if he is familiar with the
rules of interpreting the extra letters, he can work out at
least its approximate meaning even if he has never seen that
word before.
Then, once the reader understands what the text is talking
about, he can often forecast approximately what the next
words are going to be. Or, at least the reader can narrow
down the choice to only a few possible words. Therefore,
after the reader understands the context, reading-on largely
comprises merely confirming what he has projected will
come.
That is why many of the classical Talmudical texts are
written in tiny, almost illegible print and employ extensive
abbreviations. The experienced, informed reader usually does
not need to look intensively at each word. He only needs to
confirm his own projection of possible words. So, as long as
he can see enough of each word to confirm his forecast, or
to eliminate other possibilities, he will be able to
understand the text, even though its print is small and
unclear.
However, the inexperienced and/or uninformed reader cannot
forecast what the next words are likely to be. Therefore, he
is forced to analyze each and every part of each and every
word.
Furthermore, since many words in Hebrew are based on the
same few root words, one word can carry with it overtones of
other words which come from the same root. Overtones of
ideas and concepts can also come from similar-looking or --
sounding roots. The skillful writer will bear in mind the
other ideas associated with a word when he selects it.
Therefore, if the reader has enough brain-power available to
think about the words he is reading, he is able to read a
text quicker and absorb more information from it than he can
do in English. But if he is unable to think about what he is
reading, the words will be harder to read and more difficult
to interpret than in English.
This can be compared to the different types of computer
languages. A language like BASIC is easy for the non-expert
to use and understand, but lengthy and slow in use. A more
sophisticated language like C is more difficult for the non-
expert to understand, but operates faster and is much more
powerful in use.
Expertise in reading is, therefore, more crucial to Hebrew
than it is to English. The gap between the poor reader and
the good reader is greater. And the poor reader's handicap
will hinder his attaining even a superficial understanding
of a text, especially if it requires analysis.
Because of the phonic nature of the English language, issues
such as vision skills, multi-tasking, visual maturity and
brain power availability are regarded as secondary and are
usually ignored as being effectively irrelevant. However,
the reader of Hebrew needs to pay greater attention to
letter identification than does the reader of English.
Hebrew letter and vowel discrimination is visually more
challenging than that of English. Interpreting and
processing Hebrew words requires more brain-power than does
English. Furthermore, Hebrew texts are often presented in
multi-column, multi-font formats which challenge the vision
skills of the reader to a greater extent than does
English.
Therefore, issues such as vision skills, multi-tasking,
visual maturity and brain-power availabilty can be critical
to the ability of the reader of Hebrew to efficiently read
and understand Hebrew text. Furthermore, attempting to
remediate without addressing these issues could lead to
consistently lengthy programs and unsatisfactory results.
It must be stressed that the issue of vision skills does not
refer only to the clarity of the reader's vision but also to
many other skills which contribute to efficient data-input
through the eyes. Therefore, a reader might have 20-20
vision skills and a clear bill of health from his
ophthalmologist, yet still be suffering from crippling
vision-skill deficiencies.
Experience with thousands of reading and learning deficient
people has shown that many under-achievers suffer from
significant deficiencies in critical vision skills and that
remediation is much quicker and easier when these
deficiencies are corrected.
Resources and activities which promote development of
efficient vision in children have been listed in earlier
"Preparing for the Future" articles. Anyone interested in
receiving further information can contact the author at
Panim Meirot 17, tel. 02-537-3340.
