Teaching Students to Read in Latin Word Order by Katharine Russell

Read Like a Roman: Teaching Students to Read in Latin Word Order by Katharine Russell inner of the Roman Society PGCE today. And secondly, because it is a skill in New Zealand and Richard Hamilton in WResearch Prize 2017 (King’s which I, and others, believe to be the United States), I found that this had College London) teachable (Hansen, 1999; Markus & Ross, no difference in impact on the British 2004; Hoyos, 2006; McCaffrey, 2009). Not classroom experience. Most of the ‘We should read as the Romans did: in the only that, but whatever our starting point, research cited has been conducted Roman author’s word order. To skip around Wegenhart (2015) believes that by between the early 1990s and the present in a sentence only makes it harder to read the encouraging these reading skills early, we and is still very applicable today. Some of Latin’ (McCaffrey, 2009, p.65) can encourage our students to be ‘expert’ the research is rooted in modern readers who will be able to enjoy reading languages teaching; however, this makes For countless students of Latin (myself Latin long after they have been through no significant impact on findings as the included), prevailing memories of Latin their exams. expectations of what students are to instruction involve being taught to unpick extrapolate from these target language Latin sentences by racing towards the texts are very similar. verb and securing the meaning of the main clause before piecing together the Literature Review rest. However, this ‘hunt the verb’ approach, where one’s eyes are jumping In order to inform the planning of my What do we do when we read? back and forth in search of the resolution lessons I looked into what happens during of ambiguity, is not necessarily conducive the reading process itself before Reading is a complex process and one to fluent reading of Latin (Hoyos, 1993). uncovering how and why this research can which we find difficult to explain once it If, as so many textbooks and teachers be used to inform the teaching of Latin has become intuitive. The differences vouch, we are aiming to unlock Roman reading. I then explored why teachers between skilled readers and novices can authors for all students to read, then we have veered students away from the seem stark, although exactly what need to furnish them with the skills to be process of linear, left-right reading predicates these differences is difficult to able to read Latin fluently, automatically towards a more disjointed approach, outline. Hamilton (1991), using cognitive and with enjoyment, not engender in before explaining the benefits of reading reading research, breaks down the process them a process more akin to puzzle- Latin in order and practical ways of of reading into sub-tasks. He identifies breaking. I chose to experiment with teaching this process in the classroom. the stages of decoding, literal teaching students to read Latin in order, The inspiration for this sequence of comprehension, inferential firstly because, as Markus and Ross (2004) lessons arose from McCaffrey’s chapter in comprehension, and comprehension as point out, the Romans themselves must the US book When Dead Tongues Speak the necessary steps towards reading for necessarily have been able to understand (Gruber-Miller, 2006, pp. 113–133). understanding. He explains how students Latin in the order in which it was Further literature for this review was can vary in attainment at these different composed as so much of their sharing of located by following leads from this stages and furthermore, the same student literature happened orally. Indeed, as starting point supplemented by an can fluctuate between different levels of Kuhner (2016) and others who promote internet search engine. Although much of attainment from day to day and from task the continuation of spoken Latin have the most influential research stems from to task. He argues that, though many of argued, this is still a very real possibility countries other than the UK (Dexter Hoyos the circumstances surrounding the The Journal of Classics Teaching 19 (37) p.17-29 © The Classical Association 2018. This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits Downloaded non-commercialfrom https://www.cambridge.org/core re-use, distribution,. IP andaddress: reproduction 170.106.35.76 in any, on medium,01 Oct 2021 provided at 13:12:13 the, originalsubject to work the Cambridge is unaltered Core and terms is properly of use, available cited. The at written 17 https://www.cambridge.org/core/termspermission of Cambridge. https://doi.org/10.1017/S205863101800003X University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work. reading environment are beyond the I have built into my planning a number of been influential in the promulgation of control of the teacher, he or she is still opportunities for myself and the students this method. I agree with their assertions able to manipulate certain factors (such as to read Latin aloud as a stage in the and am interested to see whether reading the purpose of reading) to facilitate the understanding process. Latin in order can in fact increase best comprehension from students. reading speed and confidence. Wegenhart (2015), in a different approach to Hamilton, uses research How has reading Latin been taught based on learning to read English to Why should we teach students inform the teaching of Latin and Greek. in the past? He advocates the Reading Rope and to read in Latin word order? Cognitive Reading maps to help teachers Morgan (1997) points to the fact that in identify at which point students are being the Middle Ages people learnt Latin not The main reason that McCaffrey states held back in their reading comprehension by drills, but by reading, starting at the for reading Latin in order is that reading it and adapting their teaching accordingly. beginning of the Aeneid and learning each out of order is in fact harder than sticking He argues that the basis of phonic new word and construction as it came up. to the original text (2009, p.62). He adds recognition and manipulation must be He acknowledges that, as a method of that skipping over the bulk of the present before the recognition and recall learning to read Latin, this still exists in sentence ignores the careful literary of words and sentences can be expected. books such as Øberg’s lingua latina per se crafting of Latin prose and poetry, a This in itself is a reason to further illustrata, but recognises that this approach thought echoed by Hansen (1999, p.174). promote speaking Latin out loud as demands highly motivated students who Hoyos goes further, saying that it can discussed further below. By working back are already fluent readers in their own develop a view of the text as ‘a sea of to the very basics and mechanics of language. As a result of this, he is in chaotic harassments requiring careful reading, and not assuming that our Latin favour of the ‘horizontal’ method of decipherment’ (2006, p.24). classes are in fact full of fluent readers of reading Latin where, as exemplified by the McCaffrey arrived at his statement English, he argues that teachers are able Cambridge Latin Course, cases are through a systematic survey of popular to situate their instruction more introduced one at a time so that, for set texts (Ovid, Virgil, Cicero and appropriately to the needs of their example, students are confident using the Tacitus) where he analysed how many students and provide them with the tools nominative and accusative before the words it took for an ambiguous Latin to become expert readers. genitive is introduced. This is in direct word (for example naves which could be McCaffrey (2006) bases his analysis contrast to the ‘vertical’ method where either nominative or accusative plural) of different reading approaches students are exposed to all cases at once to be resolved by an adjective, verb or (skimming, scanning, extensive reading and, after learning them without context, preposition. He found that over 65% of and analytical reading) on the word-by- will later be introduced the significance the time the trigger word was already word decision-making process of reading of each. present, so the ambiguity could be as identified by von Berkum et al. (1999). The form of ‘hunting the verb’ resolved immediately and, in over 80% He explains how students need to be able reading which we are so familiar with, of cases, the trigger word would follow to construct meaning as the sentence then, seems to be a more recent, on directly from the ambiguous one evolves in order to read efficiently and in Anglo-centric phenomenon, where our (2009, p.65). Even before the order to do this they need a strong need for a subject-verb-object sentence numerically analytical research of grammatical grounding which is already structure overcomes our natural McCaffrey, Hoyos makes a case for well-developed in their native language. left-to-right reading habits. Hansen Latin authors being considerate of the In order to achieve this fluency, (1999), McFadden (2008) and Hoyos reader’s position and putting Wegenhart (2015) makes explicit how (2009) recognise that this tendency in information in chronological and logical important a large working vocabulary is to reading Latin is a result of our arrangement (1993). This is a point reading Latin. He identifies students’ impatience to resolve ambiguities. We which Markus and Ross emphasise, too, phonic awareness as an indicator of their rush to conclude the main clause before when they make clear that students need ability to recall vocabulary.

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