Latin Lives On! Classical and Post-classical Latin for Students in Ancient History, Archaeology, History and English

Description

Round 6 Teaching Development Grant

This project will produce teaching materials, in particular readings, for a new Latin course integrating classical and post-classical Latin for second and third year students studying Ancient History, Archaeology, History and English.

These materials will be designed to be deliverable over a VLE such as Blackboard, and made available to teachers in other universities who wish to teach Latin as a key research tool for non-classicists The readings will give students a sense of how Latin lived on in many forms beyond the Roman Empire, and will explore intertextuality between classical texts (e.g. Virgil) with the post-classical texts they inspired (e.g., Alcuin). Readings will be drawn from a wide range of sources beyond standard 'texts' including coins, graffiti and inscriptions. Students will be given a thorough grounding in Latin grammar, will read short passages of text in Latin, and will contextualize these by reading and discussing longer extracts in translation.

At Leicester there is no classics department, but several staff in the School of Archaeology and Ancient History, the School of Historical Studies and the Department of English have expertise in classical languages. Existing degree programmes in Ancient History and Archaeology and Ancient History and History include first-year, one-semester, source-based 'taster' courses in Greek and Latin taught by Ancient History staff. Over the past few years many students have so enjoyed these courses that they wish to continue ancient languages in year 2. Equally, many students in degree programmes in History and Archaeology, History, and English pursue areas of study in which Latin is a key research tool, and therefore wish to study Latin. By combining our expertise we will be able to deliver an innovative Latin course which will fulfil student demand by introducing students to the wide range of Latin texts available, and helping them to place these in their historical and literary contexts. We expect these materials to be applicable and useful in other universities where there is a demand for Latin teaching beyond the traditional classical syllabus.

The project intends to achieve:

• Production of a set of graded readings for students studying introductory Latin, with accompanying commentaries as appropriate.
• Production of a set of extended readings in translation with accompanying bibliographies and notes.
• The production of exercises and other teaching materials to accompany these readings.

The project will focus on:

Student support for language learning

• Research skills and development of key language and critical skills for dissertations
• Developing independent learning skills
• Widening participation? once the campus-based version of this course is up and running it may be possible to develop these courses as distance learning modules (the School of Ancient History and Archaeology has a highly successful distance learning unit)

The project will facilitate the teaching of Latin in universities lacking classics departments throughout the tertiary sector. In universities with classics departments, it will provide additional resources for expanding the scope of Latin teaching beyond the ancient world.

The material will be made available through the Subject Centre and its website, and by making most or all material deliverable in electronic form. There are already many classical and post-classical texts available on-line on which this project can draw for 'raw' materials.

Resources

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