A Language-Skills Analysis of the Cambridge Latin Course, Units 1–3

A LANGUAGE-SKILLS ANALYSIS OF THE CAMBRIDGE LATIN COURSE, UNITS 1-3 by E. J . BARNES f>luch heat is being generated in a debate between university and secondary school teachers over the merits of the Cambridge Latin Course as a program for teaching Canadian adolescents what has traditionally been thought of as "high school Latin". This is not the place for defending the CLC against its critics nor for telling its critics what they had better do about it. My present purpose is merely to add a layer of concrete fact to the discussions already in train . It seems that no satisfactory end to the disagreement can be realized until both sirles at least know what the CLC attempts to do and the nature of its content. As regards what the Course attempts to achieve, one could do no better than to study carefully Appendix A in the Unit 1 Teacher's Handbook. I have no intention here of reiterating what is so ably set down there by the very authors of the Course. However, the other question, that of the nature of the Course's grammatical , syntactic, and morphological content, imposes quite a good deal more study and expenditure of time on the critic (and on the defender) than many may feel willing to devote. By its very layout and concept, the course does not lend itself to cursory glances. Some more intensive analysis may assist debaters on both sides of the battlefield, and may also serve the interests of the students whose welfare we all would claim to protect. The following analysis deals with each of the 31 stages that are grouped in three Units . All the material in Units 1-3 is "made-up" Latin. It has been meticulously designed in such a way that all the significant language problems are encountered by the end of Stage 31. This means either by the end of the second year (if the teacher really pushes), or, more likely, by the middle of the third year of Latin study in the secondary school. As a result, this analysis avoids Units 4 and 5, which fall into the category of text usually called "readers". This analysis also avoids a comprehensive discussion on the incidence of occurrence of the varieties of sentence patterns found in Latin; on the rate of recurrence of these patterns; and on the nature and content of the so-called "Paralinguistic Materials", which are intended by the Course designers to claim a very large proportion of the students' time and interest. However, a listing of topics covered in the Paralinguistic Materials is appended below. - the simple sentence - showing equivalence with esse - containing action verb use of the nominative case for - subject - noun complement Stage 1 adverb phrases with in & ablative, declensions 1 & 2 e8se: 3rd singular, present indicative active regular verbs: 3rd singular, present indicative active, all conjugations A LANGUAGE-SKILLS ANALYSIS 33 nouns: nominative singular, declensions 1, 2 in -us, -ius, 3 in -el', -is exire: 3rd singul ar, present indicative active - Model sentences: 24 - accusative case as direct obj ect adverbs in -e, -tel', and irregulars ; positive degree noWlS: - nominative singular, 3rd declension in -0, -tor - accusative singular, declensions 1, 2, 3 suppresion of explicit subject - inversion of subject/verb order phrases: ad, prope & accusative; e & ablative inquit adj ectives: declensions 1 & 2 in masculine and feminine, nominative and accusative singular nouns: declensions 1 masculine; - pronouns: personal (ego, tu) esse: 1st & 2nd singular, present indicative active regular verbs: 1st & 2nd sing., present indicative active interrogative sentences with quis? quid? ubi? ablative singular, 3rd declension (-e) - noWlS: nominative plural, declensions 1, 2, 3 verbs: all conjugations Ii eS8e, 3rd plural, present indicative active compound subjects prepositions: pel' & accusative, de & ablative Stage 1 (cant 'd) Reading sentences (stories): 22 (in 7 lines) Drill sentences: 18 - 6 to complete by adding subject - 6 to complete by adding verb - 6 to complete by adding a phrase - estimated new vocabulary: 34 words Stage 2 compound sentences: clauses co-ordinated with et quoted speech after saZutat, 1'espondet , eZamat - Model sentences: 24 reading sentences: 49 (28 lines) drill sentences: - 16 to complete by adding verb - 19 for translation and review - estimated new vocabulary: 40 words Stage...