I thought Steve Cohen and his colleagues' approach to making Latin more
fun to learn was great. I'd suggest looking into some 2nd-language
teaching techniques for children, on which there is a lot of theory and
practical stuff published, if you haven't looked at it already. There are
all kinds of cool techniques, such as TPR, that make learning low-risk and
fun, at least at the beginning. (TPR = Total Physical Response. Students
learn vocab and structure by responding to commmands like: sit down. Stand
up. Turn around. Point to your left foot. Hold up something blue.")

I think Latin is extremely useful for handling English latinate
vocabulary. But what about the borrowings from Greek, and the thousands
from French? I'm not saying we need to teach Greek and French also, but
they ought not be left out as contributors to Modern English.

Here's another suggestion I've made before: if the goal is not to make
students fluent in Latin, but to help them appreciate structure in
language and in the world in general, how about bringing in -- as is
age-appropriate -- languages that, like Latin, express the same meanings
as English in 'exotic' ways, or languages that mark meanings that English
does not mark? We could relate this to students' lives by featuring
languages that are directly or indirectly related to their heritage, or
are reflected in immigrant communities in their environment. For example,
we could use Hausa or Swahili as major African languages; Native American
languages; Asian languages. Many of these languages have also contributed
words to English, so that could be another point of contact.

As useful as Latin is in dealing with technical vocabulary in English, I
believe that we should work towards diluting the notion of Latin as the
only model around for a language that marks more categories in more ways
than English does. Teaching about Latin alone risks continuing the elitist
(and false) notion that Latin is more logical or more likely to cultivate
analytical thinking habits than other languages.

I don't have concrete suggestions for lessons or languages to choose,
because I"m not expert in what K-8 kids can handle when. But if Latin can
be handled, so can other 'exotic' languages.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Johanna Rubba   Assistant Professor, Linguistics              ~
English Department, California Polytechnic State University   ~
San Luis Obispo, CA 93407                                     ~
Tel. (805)-756-2184     Fax: (805)-756-6374                   ~
E-mail: [log in to unmask]                           ~
Office hours Winter 1999: Mon/Wed 10:10-11am Thurs 2:10-3pm   ~
Home page: http://www.calpoly.edu/~jrubba                     ~
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