Speaking to Read, Reading to Learn (and Listening is Critical Too!)
This year the question may well be "Why speak Latin?" For years I have been dissatisfied with the lack of true acquisition and building of a mental representation of Latin in my students. While I love the Cambridge Latin Course and thoroughly understand its reading philosophy (and believe I teach it well), it still isn't enough to develop an internalization of the language because there just isn't enough "comprehensible input." For many years I have personally attended week long immersion programs that utilize many of the techniques I will be using in class to full effect this year.
To read more about the desire of many Latin teachers to move to a comprehensible input model of teaching Latin, please read this wonderful article by my friend and mentor Justin Slocum Bailey entitled "Teaching Latin to Humans."
This year the question may well be "Why speak Latin?" For years I have been dissatisfied with the lack of true acquisition and building of a mental representation of Latin in my students. While I love the Cambridge Latin Course and thoroughly understand its reading philosophy (and believe I teach it well), it still isn't enough to develop an internalization of the language because there just isn't enough "comprehensible input." For many years I have personally attended week long immersion programs that utilize many of the techniques I will be using in class to full effect this year.
To read more about the desire of many Latin teachers to move to a comprehensible input model of teaching Latin, please read this wonderful article by my friend and mentor Justin Slocum Bailey entitled "Teaching Latin to Humans."
