Digging Up A Vocabulary List

I was asked by my sister-in-law to provide a simple list of Latin words to help her young daughter learn vocabulary and reading. I thought such a list would be easy to find and I put the task off until the last minute. When I began my search in Google, I quickly discovered that there are any number of specialized lists, but there really isn't a generic list of basic vocabulary for someone who is not (at the moment) interested in learning Latin. I finally settled on the "First Latin Book Beginners Vocabulary" list from http://www.textkit.com/. There is a good mix of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and such with, most importantly, the English meanings. I printed out this hefty list (amounting to four pages) and felt that was a decent place to start.

My search did recall to my memory an outstanding book, The Usborne First Thousand Words in Latin, which I hope to find in the neighborhood bookstore when we visit. This would certainly be much more appropriate for my niece's purpose.

In any case, I do plan to warn my sister-in-law that learning lists of vocabulary words is not the same as learning the language. While the vocabulary words are the building blocks, one cannot merely stack them randomly and call it a wall. Further, forcing the memorization of lists of words no more constitutes the learning of language than does committing to memory the numbers zero through nine and calling it mathematics.

Tolkien and the Power of Language

There is an excellent piece in today's (1/3/09) The Writer's Almanac about J.R.R. Tolkien and the power of language. The best quote from Tolkien comes at the end of the article, "I wish life was not so short. Languages take such a time, and so do all the things one wants to know about."

Classical Literacy

One of the activities in my classroom which has made me very proud and provided much satisfaction is the teaching of what I call "classical literacy." One is classically literate when he recognizes and understands those Greek and Latin mottoes, abbreviations, phrases, terms, and Greek and Roman mythological, historical, and literary references and allusions found in everyday, modern English.

When I was a student, I felt very awkward (and even a bit foolish) when someone discovered that I was learning Latin and he would toss out a sine qua non or an illegitimi non carborundum [sic] and I would just have to shrug, not having a clue as to what he meant. I didn't want my own students to have that same feeling of inadequacy, so I began teaching these tid-bits on a daily basis.

The process goes like this:

• Every class period I introduce two items of classical literacy (There used to be only one a day until we moved to block scheduling and then needed to double up in order to cover the same amount of material). These items can be selected at random or (even better) come from being heard or seen in the recent media. At times, the "Jeopardy" game show can provide the suggestion.
• All classes and all levels are taught the same items. These items do not repeat during the same school year but may repeat in subsequent years. I have found that after a student has taken Latin with me for four years, he or she has become quite the expert and should be called "classically literate."
• I keep a running list on the side board in my classroom so that these items can always be seen by my students. I have them keep a complete list with explanations and examples in their notebooks. [Sample of Classical Literacy Items]
• When we reach twenty items (evey ten class periods), we have a "Classical Literacy Quiz." This is almost always a matching quiz designed to boost confidence in learning and provide a less-stressful (read "easy") quiz grade. Most students perform quite well on this quiz but, surprisingly, some do fail. I attribute the failing grades to those students who do not pay attention in class and/or do not make an attempt to review or study. [Sample Classical Literacy Quiz]
• At the end of the semester, we have usually accumulated around 80 items. About three days before the semester exam, I offer an "Optional, Extra-Credit, Classical Literacy Test." Every item presented during the semester is included on the test. The format is fill-in-the-blank WITHOUT a word bank. The only thing the student is given is a translation, a request for translation, a description, example, or suggestion. The student is awarded 1/10th of a point for every correct answer for up to +8 points on the semester exam. I round up at every 0.5 points, so a score of a 37 earns +4 points on the exam. Most students earn around +3 or +4 points, but some do earn a +5 or +6, and even a very few a +7 or +8 (there were two students who earned the maximum amount the first semester of 2005-2006, one with a score of 76, the other with a 79! She will always remember that one item she missed which prevented her from getting a perfect score!). [Sample Classical Literacy Test]