Latin

Latin: Bringing People Together Since 753 B.C. 1

This entry was posted in Feature Posts and tagged Finnish Radio Latin projects Teaching on by

Today CANEns is pleased to have a guest article from Bethanie Sawyer, a Latin teacher at Longmeadow High School in Longmeadow, MA, in which she discusses how she uses Finnish Radio Latin News in her classes.
I admit I have missed the boat on using oral Latin in the classroom. I like the idea, I’ve learned a lot of great ways to incorporate it, but in recent years I find that I just… forget. So now with a new teacher evaluation system, student learning goals, and technology goals, I am finally forcing myself to include Latin as a spoken language in my curriculum.
Putting it that way makes it sound like a miserable chore, however. On the contrary, part of my plan in making student learning and technology goals that included oral Latin was an excuse to have my students listen to Nuntii Latini – or, as I like to call it – the Finnish Radio Latin News.
If you are unfamiliar with this, Nuntii Latini is a four to five minute news program entirely in Latin broadcast every Friday on the Finnish radio – it was started in 1989 but has been made available in recent years on the internet. Usually consisting of four to six short reports, Nuntii Latini covers stories from the election of the new pope to the situation in Syria to Berlusconi’s tax fraud to the best way to keep tulips blooming in a vase. The transcripts of the report are available and the audio can be downloaded or streamed from the website.
Nuntii Latini is a treat for my students – they love it. Our classes have a scheduled half-block (about 25 minutes) in the language lab every week, so with the upper levels, we have been alternating a day of practicing our reading of dactylic hexameter with listening to the Latin news. Latin is often overlooked when it comes to language labs – again, my students are not at a level of Latin composition or conversation – but we can go to the lab, listen to the news, read the text, and I can send them vocabulary and questions, which they then can work through with randomly assigned partners and answer in a document that I then collect – without any of us touching a piece of paper. (Technology goals, eat your heart out.) But a lab is not necessary – all you need is some reliable internet and a set of speakers.
But Magistra (you – or, rather, other people not language teachers – may ask), the text of the audio is right there on the website! Why not just read it? What do you gain from listening to it as well? This, o comites, is what I love best about Nuntii Latini. It reminds us all that Latin is a language – still a living one. Just because there are no native speakers of Latin alive to discuss current events doesn’t mean that people cannot use the language to report it.
The news stories are not America-focused, and for many students, the Latin news is the first (or only) place they will have heard of the events. There is no English on the page (aside from links to articles about the site in English-speaking journals); the instructions for how to stream or download the audio is in Latin – or Finnish. Unlike most of the Latin texts we read, it is not anywhere translated on the internet.
Students hear (and see) their vocab words from Ovid mixed in with ‘new’ Latin words like microparticulae (microchips) and telephoniculae (cell phones). No, they’re not practicing speaking Latin, and they certainly would have a lot of difficulty with comprehension if the text were not available to read, as well, but I still find that Nuntii Latini is a great resource and activity. One of the aspects of teaching Latin that I like best of all is the opportunity to share with students perspectives of a culture other than their own, that still has a connection to their own. We do this by learning of ancient Mediterranean societies, of course, but the Latin news allows us to see what other countries currently may be thinking about, and experiencing, and finding most important. I think that is so valuable to education in general, and specifically to a language course. The fact that we are able to get these perspectives because of Latin being a living, active language that students can hear and understand – well, I can’t think of anything better.

Into Upper Level Latin – a Conversation 5

This entry was posted in Feature Posts and tagged Author:KennethKitchell Latin Teaching upper level on by

The following is a guest post from Kenneth Kitchell, Professor of Classics, UMASS Amherst.
Dear Mother:
I am very, very nervous. Soon I will have to take a course and an exam in this English I am studying for two years now. I have done well these two years achieving B+ first year and A- second year. But I remain nervous still. This course is called “English Literature.” This is not a bad thing. I wish to read these great writers. I wish to show my family and my teachers that I am a good student. But I fear I will not do well.
I went on the Internet and looked up the books we will read in this course. One book, by Mr. James Fenimore Cooper, is called The Last of the Mohicans. I thought it would be great fun, having battles, adventures, and hunting. But consider the opening of this book:

It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, that the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered before the adverse hosts could meet. A wide and apparently an impervious boundary of forests severed the possessions of the hostile provinces of France and England.

I do not understand. I know the words. I looked each of them up in the dictionary you so kindly sent me. But what were the “colonial wars” and why are the hosts angry? I thought a host was a person who treated you well. Or is it the host upon which another creature lives? “Perhaps,” I thought, “I will do better with the works of Mr. Herman Melville.” We are to read, Moby Dick, a story of hunting whales. I should enjoy this book very well. But see how it begins:

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world. It is a way I have of driving off the spleen and regulating the circulation. Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off – then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship.

The sentences are so long! And I do not understand why this Ishmael (my own name!) is kicking hats at a funeral with his friend Cato. I do not know, mother, but I am afraid that this English is too hard for me. I may not take this second course. Perhaps Spanish. Those in that class watch Sesame Street and read newspapers. What is your advice, mother?
Your loving son, Ishmael.
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The above, as you have probably figured out, is a fictitious letter from a learner of English as a second language. But if we change but a few words here and there, it could easily be a letter (more likely a series of texts) from one of our Latin 3 or 4 students. How many of them have flourished in Latin I and 2 only to bump squarely into the convoluted and difficult (it’s ok, you can admit it) Latin of Vergil and Caesar, the current favorites of the AP? Our modern Ishmael is not of this country and does not understand diction and 200 year old references. Latin 3 and 4 students are not of Rome and deal with references 2,000 years old.
We all know of the success we had saving Latin in the 70s and 80s. We now teach beginning Latin from texts specifically designed to be interesting and to teach in a more natural manner. But upper division Latin was not a full part of this counteroffensive. True, we now consider facing vocabulary and notes a necessity, and this was once not the case. But curricula at the upper division levels, whether they be collegiate or pre-collegiate, remain much as they have been – courses centering on the translation and appreciation of the Latin greats.
This is certainly admirable. These are great authors and should be studied. My concern, however, is that they do not, of necessity, have to be the first thing a student encounters after acquiring the basics of the Latin language. And we are all very aware of the drop in enrollment in most programs between beginning Latin and upper division Latin. There are many factors causing this, but one is the tendency for Latin programs, many of which can only offer one or two upper division courses a semester/year, to move students directly into high level authors. I fear that many students, who would otherwise continue in Latin, do not go on. Like Ishmael, they may have done well and may wish to succeed, but are deterred from continuing by a confluence of difficulty – the move from controlled vocabulary, poetic diction, obscure references, long and subordinated sentences, etc.
I am fully aware of the constraints that exist. Parents demand AP so that their above average children can get into above average schools. The students demand AP courses to add luster to their transcripts. School districts want them so that they look “good” to legislatures and voters. College programs feel the need to prepare their majors for advanced work. But what of the average students and what of filling our upper division Latin courses and keeping our programs robust? The time has come for some honest debate on this issue.
Consider the curricula of modern foreign languages and of ESL programs. Do Spanish 3 students leap into Cervantes? Do ESL students in their third semester read Faulkner? No, they read material appropriate for their current level of language acquisition – short stories, novels, and plays written in ability-appropriate language – things that can be read, not things that have to be deciphered. In case you think this is heresy, note that this has long been called for. The famed Committee of Ten, in 1894, studied high school curricula. Even then, they suggested easier authors for a student’s first encounter with authorial Latin, even suggesting the use of transitional works like Viri Romani prior to taking on authors. The ACL’s 1924 two volume study of Latin pedagogy recommended the same thing. But tradition prevailed.
We should first admit that there is a problem with upper division enrollments. Then we must answer some hard questions. Is there no room in our world for the student of average ability who simply likes Latin and wishes to continue in it? Is advanced literature study the only goal of our language classes? Are we in danger of slipping back to a stage where Latin is for the elite only? Dorothy Sayers, the famous creator of the Lord Peter Wimsey murder mysteries and a genuine Medieval/Renaissance scholar stated:

I do not think it either wise or necessary to cramp the ordinary pupil upon the Procrustean bed of the Augustan Age, with its highly elaborate and artificial verse forms and oratory. Post-classical and mediaeval Latin, which was a living language down to the end of the Renaissance, is easier and in some ways livelier; and a study of it helps to dispel the widespread notion that learning and literature came to a full-stop when Christ was born and only woke up again at the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

A bit harsh, perhaps, but a good place to start the discussion.

Comprehensible Input

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I have long held the belief that Latin, like any other language, can and should be spoken.  To that end, I have been attending SALVI’s Rusticatio Virginiana for quite a few years.  Needless to say, it changed my life.  This year, SALVI added an amazing new program called Pedagogy Rusticatio.  The thought behind this was that even if YOU can speak Latin, actually getting your STUDENTS to speak Latin can get, well, lost in translation.
This year’s Pedagogy Rusticatio focused on Comprehensible Input (CI), with presenters Jason Fritze and Bob Patrick, with appearances by Nancy Llewelyn and Evan Gardner of Where Are Your Keys.  We focused on TPR, TPRS, and Embedded readings–both teaching them, and creating them.    Simply put, we focused on making sure students LEARN and RETAIN language by actually working with it.
There’s a quote that came out of the workshop–I believe it was Bob Patrick who said it:  “One will produce language when they are ready and not a moment before.”  I think this is something we all have to remember.  I know it sure helped me as I went in to my seventh (!?) Rusticatio!
The ACTFL guidelines for proficiency in a language explain a lot if you take a look at them.  To put them more simply, here is the “Party Taxonomy” that Evan Gardner uses to explain them.  It looks like this:
“There are 4 levels of being able to use a foreign language, but you can extrapolate this to ANYTHING.
1) Tarzan at a party–sheer vocab and memorization; barely full sentences. (e.g. Teacher: “What do you like to eat?” Student: “Hamburgers!”)–think Sesame Street
2) Get to the party–can you ask the appropriate questions and understand the responses to get to the party, dressed appropriately, bringing the right things. (e.g. “May I bring a guest?” “Yes, and I’d like you to bring a cake as well.” “Ok”)–Think Dora The Explorer
3) What happened at the party last night?–Can you talk about an event in the past, present and future? (e.g. “Tarzan went INSANE at the party last night! He got out of control and was throwing couches out the window! So the police came and arrested him. This morning, he called me to ask about baling him out of jail, but I have no money, so I will have to call my mom and see what we can do.  I will never invite Tarzan to a party again.”)–Think Larry King
4) What if parties were illegal?–How does that affect our cultural, economic, and social standards and day to day life? Can you think about something in the big picture and almost philosophically. Think about being on Charlie Rose’s show.”
Learning to use (levels 2 + 3) or thinking deeply about (level 4), is soooo much better than learning about (level 1). I’ve used this to get my colleagues thinking about where they want their students to be throughout the year. Not just my language colleagues, either.
I think this applies a lot to what we are doing. We want the students at 4 eventually, right? Well, you’re not going to get there by sitting on 1! You need to USE your knowledge and apply it. For we teachers, this is where the work we do comes in, I believe.
Too often, we try to speak Latin, and we get scared because it isn’t easy for us.  If it is hard for us, we think, we could never use it with the students!  They would be overwhelmed.  That is where Comprehensible Input comes in.  I will go into all of this more in my next post.  In the meantime, check out this awesome post by Rachel Ash!