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All Blog Posts (634)

Cursum Latinum

Over the summer, I have been working on an Audio Visual Latin Course, that is grammar intensive, yet teaches Latin through only using Latin. I have called this the Cursum Latinum, to tie in with the Latinum podcast.

The course is aimed at complete beginners, who speak any… Continue

Added by Molendinarius on September 28, 2010 at 4:45am — No Comments

Over-analysis and performance

I was reading this article today, by a psychologist on the 'choking' mechanism that can reduce performance, and I think the same argument can be applied to language study - and to Latin in particular. OK,it does not appear to be totally 'hard science', but the general position is evidence based:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/09/100925120110.htm

Most people I know who try to speak Latin,… Continue

Added by Molendinarius on September 28, 2010 at 4:09am — No Comments

alphabetum graecum

Οur network Alphabetum graecum it's going to disappear.

But you can yet contribute to the question of greek pronunciation at the namesake collaborative web, if you think historical greek pronunciation it's necessary.

Χάριταϛ ὑμῖν ἔχω!

Added by santi on August 22, 2010 at 6:46am — No Comments

Operation LAPIS: first-year Latin as an RPG inside an ARG

I thought it might be of interest to some here that together with a wonderful team of like-minded classicists, educational psychologists, and a coder or two, we'll be launching what we believe is the first-ever practomimetic (game-based) introductory language course.

More at my blog, Living Epic, if your interest is piqued. We'd love to hear from you if you'd like to help iterate, as they say in the game… Continue

Added by Roger Travis on August 16, 2010 at 8:24am — No Comments

Doveri dell'uomo di stato (Cicero, De Officiis, I, XXV)

Omnino qui rei publicae praefuturi sunt duo Platonis praecepta teneant: unum, ut utilitatem civium sic tueantur, ut quaecumque agunt, ad eam referant obliti commodorum suorum, alterum, ut totum corpus rei publicae curent, ne, dum partem aliquam tuentur, reliquas deserant. Ut enim tutela, sic procuratio rei publicae ad eorum utilitatem, qui commissi sunt, non ad eorum,…

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Added by Patrick Manuello on August 13, 2010 at 3:09am — No Comments

YoLink: Search Enhancement Tool

YoLink is a search enhancement tool that allows you to search behind links.
"Less time searching, more time finding."
You can add it to your blog or school site.
http://www.yolinkeducation.com/education/resources.jsp
This site also has links to other ED TECH Sites.

Added by Zee Ann Poerio on August 8, 2010 at 11:17am — No Comments

Titio! Tweeting in and for Latin via Twitter

Twitter is another ubiquitous Web 2.0 communication tool enabling users to "tweet" (post) updates in 140 characters (or less). Some would argue that Martial was the first person to tweet even though Twitter would not be invented until nearly 2,000 years after his death. For users of Twitter, there are those who tweet, those who follow (subscribe to those who tweet), and those who do both. Classicists have gotten into Twitter, too, and some are even using it… Continue

Added by Andrew Reinhard on July 26, 2010 at 9:28am — 1 Comment

translation

I was curious how a lot of 19th century textbooks dealt with the difference between the praetereunte /imperfect and praeterito/perfect: I found translations that distinguished between them, while not ( to my ear) signifying a great difference in meaning: namely I loved for the imperfect, and I have loved for the praeterito. I had loved for the antepraeterito.

To my ear I 've eaten dinner, and I ate dinner are almost indistinguishable - using these methods to render the tenses in… Continue

Added by Molendinarius on July 26, 2010 at 5:59am — 2 Comments

New Virtual Classroom launch on WiZiQ - Important notes

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Added by Mark Cruthers on July 24, 2010 at 4:10pm — No Comments

Academic Language and Latin

The article below shows up yet another area where I expect…

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Added by Molendinarius on July 24, 2010 at 12:09pm — No Comments

Latin and Chemistry Textbooks

If you are interested in Latin and Chemistry, as I am ( I am a Chemistry teacher by profession), then this selection culled from google books might interest you.

Google books constantly amazes me - more and more Latin texts appear on google every day - we are very fortunate, I doubt at any point in history has anyone had access to such a complete and diverse library of texts in Latin, and we have it at the press of a few keystrokes.…

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Added by Molendinarius on July 18, 2010 at 10:31am — 4 Comments

One good reason for teaching grammar

Many English Speakers Cannot Understand Basic Grammar

ScienceDaily (July 6, 2010) — Research into grammar by academics at Northumbria University suggests that a significant proportion of native English speakers are unable to understand some basic sentences.

The findings -- which undermine the assumption that all speakers have a core ability to use grammatical cues -- could have significant implications for education, communication and linguistic theory.

The research, conducted by… Continue

Added by Molendinarius on July 6, 2010 at 5:47pm — 1 Comment

Achieving rounded fluency

Most students of Latin, in my estimation, have a very narrow band of fluency. The same may even be true of many Latin teachers, who struggle with texts that they have not prepared.

A question I have asked myself, is this: what does one need to do, to get 'broad-band, fully functional fluency?.

The answer is simple, of course - much reading. But reading what?

My solution is this - after completing an initial Latin…

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Added by Molendinarius on July 3, 2010 at 8:00am — No Comments

GIOVANNI PASCOLI'S NOVEMBRE IN SERMONEM LATINUM TRANSLATUS

One of the most famous poem by Giovanni Pascoli translated into Latin language.…

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Added by Patrick Manuello on June 21, 2010 at 4:00am — No Comments

Some evidence in support of a translation-based approach to language teaching

Second Language Learners Recall Native Language When Reading, Brain Research Suggests

ScienceDaily (June 1, 2010) — Adults fluent in English whose first language is Chinese retrieve their native language when reading in English, according to new research in the June 2 issue of The Journal of Neuroscience. This study suggests that people who learn a second language in adolescence or later recall the sounds of words from their native language.

The scientists who conducted the… Continue

Added by Molendinarius on June 3, 2010 at 4:45pm — No Comments

Latinum Stats

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Added by Molendinarius on May 4, 2010 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Online Advanced Latin at UConn: needs?

We're continuing to develop the Classics and Ancient Mediterranean Studies program here at the University of Connecticut in order to make it possible to complete a degree online. One important step in that process is going to happen in Spring 2011, when I will offer UConn's first online Advanced Latin course. I'm hoping to get colleagues' help in figuring out what the best schedule is on which to offer the course: whether a regular spring semester course, a highly-compressed January or May… Continue

Added by Roger Travis on May 2, 2010 at 6:33am — No Comments

Sign Language Study Shows Multiple Brain Regions Wired for Language

An interesting study on morphology, and word order, and the parts of the brain activated when different types of sentences are used, will be of interest to Latin teachers.

Added by Molendinarius on April 30, 2010 at 4:31am — No Comments

SCRIBBLERS, SCVLPTORS, AND SCRIBES

SALVETE! My new Latin reader, SCRIBBLERS, SCVLPTORS, AND SCRIBES, is due out this month, and Andrew said it'd be fine to post a notice; you can browse it here:

http://browseinside.harpercollins.com/index.aspx?isbn13=9780061259180&cm_mmc=eml-_-at-_-20098-_-20100420

I'm pretty excited about it; here's the cover "blurb":

A…

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Added by rick lafleur on April 21, 2010 at 6:26pm — No Comments

The Death of NIng

Ning have just announced on their Developer Network that they are terminating their free service - the cut off date has not yet been given, but this will effectively kill Schola, and this site as well. I will, however, convert Schola to a Premium site, if there is no alternative way to keep it alive on Ning. This at present is $10 a month, the new pricing schedule has not been announced.

I am also currently looking into alternatives as a fail safe, and am making arrangements to…

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Added by Molendinarius on April 16, 2010 at 10:00am — 13 Comments