Special aspects of teaching Hebrew language in Bukovina (second half of the XIX – the beginning of XX cent.)

Abstract

The article analyzes special aspects of teaching Hebrew language in Bukovina in the second half of the XIX – the beginning of XX centuries. Historical and social prerequisites of formation and development of Jewish education in Bukovina are demonstrated. Two main types of schools that provided education for Jewish children are presented: private Heather and Talmud-Torah schools and public Jewish-German primary/elementary schools. Heather and Talmud-Torah schools were ingrained in Jewish tradition with indepth study of Hebrew language and Jewish religion while JewishGerman primary/elementary schools combined religious-national teaching with traditional subjects. The textbooks of the study period that were discovered reflect the peculiarity of that time. Their analysis gives us the opportunity to claim that the direct method of teaching foreign languages was used. The structure and the content of this textbooks are the result of the development of language teaching methodology of that time and the result of means of understanding the linguistic and speech systems of foreign language studies. The structure and the content of the textbooks were based on presenting material from lighter to heavier. Among the main functions of the textbooks were: informative (information was provided about the system of the language being studied), academic (learning of lexical and grammatical material), supervising (questions based on acquired knowledge), educational (in-depth study of cultural and religious traditions). The language material was taught with the help of materials provided in the grammar reference manuals as well as by exercising the suggested exercises in the textbooks. Speech material teaching was carried out by the means of reading texts of religious and educational nature that were found in anthologies. The explanation of grammatical and lexical material was made in German.