English-into-Latin: Why not give it a go?
English-into-Latin: Why not give it a go? (SATIPS Classics Broadsheet, Summer 2015)
I was very heartened to read in last term’s Broadsheet, in Nick Oulton’s tribute to the legendary Theo Zinn, the words: ‘Theo taught me that, to learn to read a language, you have to be able to write it, no arguments.’
There was a flurry of activity a couple of years ago when the then Education Secretary, Michael Gove, suggested that some English-into-Latin might be a good idea. Peter Jones supported the idea, but not surprisingly the rank-and-file of Latin teachers at senior level were anti; they have enough to contend with, getting bums on seats and ploughing through set texts with a miserly curriculum allocation. Sounds familiar.
About five years ago I started teaching my Year 6 beginners Latin the way I learned it myself in the late 60s: by writing in Latin from the outset. The rationale is simple: if you learn to write in Latin from the word go, it does not become a big deal later on, and it demands an inescapable thoroughness and attention to detail which can, to a degree, be side-stepped when working out of the language.
I have a theory that we tend to patronise young children and that in our efforts to make everything easy and attractive for them we fail to stretch their intellects and bring out their best. But the children derive great satisfaction from achieving success in something which is quite admittedly not easy: the emphasis is on not being disheartened by making mistakes, but on learning from them. After plenty of practice they soon stop making the same old errors, and things once considered too tricky become routine. Even moderate achievers are, in a term and a half, writing Latin well beyond the standard demanded by Common Entrance Level 1 question 3. They make the usual mistakes when they come across their first passages of Latin, like anyone else, but they soon get into the habit of recognising the significance of the endings which they have been using in their own composing, and of looking for the verb at the end.
Come the end of Year 8, and their ninth term of learning, the brightest are really quite good, and can turn out purpose clauses, fear clauses and ablative absolutes like hot cakes. In fact, a visiting public school teacher said that they knew their stuff better than his AS candidates. You can see some samples of work online. It also, of course, gives them the edge in their scholarship exams. A talented latinist returned from his scholarship attempt at an academic senior school in the south east last week, and said that of the 35 candidates only two offered the English-Latin option in the paper: he was one of them.
I have now completed trialling all the materials in class. I have called it Latin as an Honour, a Churchillian reference. It is still a Latin reading course; it’s just that the exercises between the reading passages are English-Latin rather than the reverse. Book 1 covers the CE Level 1 syllabus, the narrative being based on the Romulus and Remus story. Book 2 covers Level 2 and, as with Latin Practice Exercises 2, the narrative is based on the Trojan War. Similarly Latin as an Honour 3 deals with the wanderings of Odysseus and covers Level 3, CAS and public school scholarship levels.
Some colleagues have embraced this approach whole-heartedly: I am grateful for their support and enthusiastic comments. Others just dip into it now and then; that’s fine, too – we all have our own approach and philosophy. The materials are free of charge: email me and I’ll send you pdfs of Books 1-3, and any future updates. These can be viewed on computers, projectors and mobile devices, or you can do what I do, and take them to your local print shop to print off hard copies – you’ll find that doing this works out at about half the cost of ‘normal’ text books. If you fancy an awayday to Ipswich, get in touch and come and see things in action. Why not join the revolution?!
I was very heartened to read in last term’s Broadsheet, in Nick Oulton’s tribute to the legendary Theo Zinn, the words: ‘Theo taught me that, to learn to read a language, you have to be able to write it, no arguments.’
There was a flurry of activity a couple of years ago when the then Education Secretary, Michael Gove, suggested that some English-into-Latin might be a good idea. Peter Jones supported the idea, but not surprisingly the rank-and-file of Latin teachers at senior level were anti; they have enough to contend with, getting bums on seats and ploughing through set texts with a miserly curriculum allocation. Sounds familiar.
About five years ago I started teaching my Year 6 beginners Latin the way I learned it myself in the late 60s: by writing in Latin from the outset. The rationale is simple: if you learn to write in Latin from the word go, it does not become a big deal later on, and it demands an inescapable thoroughness and attention to detail which can, to a degree, be side-stepped when working out of the language.
I have a theory that we tend to patronise young children and that in our efforts to make everything easy and attractive for them we fail to stretch their intellects and bring out their best. But the children derive great satisfaction from achieving success in something which is quite admittedly not easy: the emphasis is on not being disheartened by making mistakes, but on learning from them. After plenty of practice they soon stop making the same old errors, and things once considered too tricky become routine. Even moderate achievers are, in a term and a half, writing Latin well beyond the standard demanded by Common Entrance Level 1 question 3. They make the usual mistakes when they come across their first passages of Latin, like anyone else, but they soon get into the habit of recognising the significance of the endings which they have been using in their own composing, and of looking for the verb at the end.
Come the end of Year 8, and their ninth term of learning, the brightest are really quite good, and can turn out purpose clauses, fear clauses and ablative absolutes like hot cakes. In fact, a visiting public school teacher said that they knew their stuff better than his AS candidates. You can see some samples of work online. It also, of course, gives them the edge in their scholarship exams. A talented latinist returned from his scholarship attempt at an academic senior school in the south east last week, and said that of the 35 candidates only two offered the English-Latin option in the paper: he was one of them.
I have now completed trialling all the materials in class. I have called it Latin as an Honour, a Churchillian reference. It is still a Latin reading course; it’s just that the exercises between the reading passages are English-Latin rather than the reverse. Book 1 covers the CE Level 1 syllabus, the narrative being based on the Romulus and Remus story. Book 2 covers Level 2 and, as with Latin Practice Exercises 2, the narrative is based on the Trojan War. Similarly Latin as an Honour 3 deals with the wanderings of Odysseus and covers Level 3, CAS and public school scholarship levels.
Some colleagues have embraced this approach whole-heartedly: I am grateful for their support and enthusiastic comments. Others just dip into it now and then; that’s fine, too – we all have our own approach and philosophy. The materials are free of charge: email me and I’ll send you pdfs of Books 1-3, and any future updates. These can be viewed on computers, projectors and mobile devices, or you can do what I do, and take them to your local print shop to print off hard copies – you’ll find that doing this works out at about half the cost of ‘normal’ text books. If you fancy an awayday to Ipswich, get in touch and come and see things in action. Why not join the revolution?!