Bridging Language Experiences

Robert B. Patrick (Parkview High School, GA)

The presenter has studied a number of languages (Latin, Spanish, Hebrew—modern and classical, and Greek—Koine) in a variety of circumstances. The disparate experiences and successes (or lack thereof) of these studies, have influenced Latin pedagogy of the presenter. He will, in this paper, briefly and concretely describe these experiences insofar as they helped shape and inform his current Latin pedagogy.

A comparison between student experiences in the Spanish and Latin class room will be most productive. After 10 years of no study at all, he was placed into a third semester course, which was conducted entirely in Spanish. He subsequently finished a Spanish major studying literature. At the same time, after the same amount of time away from Latin, he was placed into a fourth semester Latin course. He worked through a number of literature and other classics courses that were taught only in English, and required only grammar and translation into English. His sense of competency in the two languages was at variance.

In some language learning settings, he studied with a great deal of intensity with little to no sense of progress in competence. In others, he found himself making almost immediate progress in competence in the language. He will discuss the effects that these experiences had on him as he sought the best ways to help his high school Latin students develop competence in their reading and understanding of Latin without reliance on translation into English.

The presenter sought experiences and methods that would help him bring to his Latin students a consistent experience of progress in competence in Latin that he had enjoyed in, for example, Spanish. In his search for such experiences and methods, he found three resources: John Traupman’s Conversational Latin; the Conventiculum at the University of Kentucky, and the Rusticatio sponsored by SALVI. The presenter will discuss the benefits of each of these resources as well as how each, in succession, led him to the next.

The presenter will discuss how these experiences have influenced and reshaped his Latin classroom and teaching approaches. He will discuss the differences he currently sees in students who return for upper level study (not to mention the increased numbers in enrollment). In particular, he will describe in detail, as time allows, how an active use of Latin enhances what students are capable of doing when they return after a summer off from their studies without any review of their previous year’s work.

The presenter will conclude with some reflection on the obstacles that Latin teachers face in dealing with the issues that he has raised with the goal of helping students experience progress in competence in Latin.