The following question was recently posed in the Chinuch Chaburah Email:

Does anyone know where to find background information on the rules for Shva Na and Shva Nach? Are there simple formulas that Kriah teachers are using? 

(MODERATOR: The Chinuch Chaburah is a publication of the esteemed Rabbi T.M.S.)


Well, I am not a Kriah teacher per say, but would like to answer this question.

There are five main rules when a Shva is a Shva Nah (a 'moving’ Shva, meaning it is pronounced, and not ‘blended’ with the preceding letter). Most teach the  rules this way:

 א)First – if the Shva appears as the first letter of the word, it is always a Shva Nah.  ב)Two - If there are two Shvas in a row in the middle of a word, the second one is a Shva Nah. (If two Shvas appear at the end of a word, as in the word אַנְתְּ, they are both a Shva Nach.)  ג) Gedolah – A Shva appearing directly after a Tenuah Gedolah is a Shva Nah.  ד) Dagesh – A Shva under a letter with a Dagesh is a Shva Nah. ה) HaDomos – When two same letter appear next to each other, and the first one has a Shva, it is a Shva Nah, as in the word Hinine (הנני).

When teaching Nekudos, is it common practice amongst the Yeshivishe/Litvishe  Mosdos to teach which Nekudos are the Tenuos Gedolos and which are the Tenuos Ketanos, or not? I ask this not out of curiosity, but rather as a  practical inquiry.

Most youngsters, I assume, would find this concept hard to understand. For them, it is difficult enough to master each sound and  associate  it with the given symbol. Adding the classification of Tenuah Gedolah  and Tenuah Ketanah will surely burden them with extra baggage. My “Safek” is, is it really worth the extra pressure and anxiety to teach this concept to children  at such a young age, when in all practicality is serves little in the way of  their mastering Kriah?

English reading is commonly taught using a "Whole Language" approach which includes sight words as described below:

Whole word, also known as "Sight Word" and "Look and Say", teaches reading skills and strategies in the context of authentic literature. Word recognition accuracy is considered less important than meaning accuracy; therefore, there is an emphasis on comprehension as the ultimate goal.

Students in this method memorize the appearance of words, or learn to recognize words by looking at the first and last letter from rigidly selected vocabularies in progressive texts (such as The Cat  in the Hat). Often preliminary results show children taught with this method have higher reading levels than children learning phonics, because they learn to automatically recognise a small selection of words. However later tests demonstrate that literacy development becomes stunted when hit with longer and more complex words later.

That said, does anyone teach "Sight Words" in Lashon Kodesh? What have your results been? Do you feel this is worthwhile? What about with boys who are having difficulty with Kriah?