In a message dated 2/8/99 5:29:45 PM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask]
writes:

>
>  My only misgivings would be that (1) it may reinforce students'
> understanding of
>  how language works only through the study of a foreign language and (2)
> students
>  may try to apply principles of Latin grammar to English, as many grown-ups
> have
>  done in the past few centuries, giving us such bogies as the split
> infinitive.
>  I put forward the first point not so much out of linguistic chauvinism as
> the
>  concern that many students may think linguistic structure is something
other
>  languages have, not their own.  Only in studying a foreign language do they
>  typically learn to talk about tense, mood, or case.  By then, they already
> have
>  a great grasp on English, but might not be able explain about how it works.

These are good points.  We are trying two things to deal with this.  First,
the _abridged_ Latin "course" is taught as part of the English course by the
English teacher (which is presenting it's own challenges).  Second,
comparisons are constantly being made between the way Latin does something and
the way English does something (and the way Spanish and French do things,
since each student from 6th grade on takes one of these as well).

Steve Cohen