Learning Latin and Greek from Antiquity to the Present

This volume provides a unique overview of the complete histories of Latin and Greek as second languages.

Elizabeth P. Archibald (Edited by), William Brockliss (Edited by), Jonathan Gnoza (Edited by)

9781107051645, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 26 February 2015

248 pages, 10 b/w illus. 1 table
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.5 kg

'This book fills beautifully a remarkable gap, and in so doing it involves a dream team of contributors. Second language acquisition has elicited much attention over the past few decades, but Greek and Latin - despite having been the object of such study for millennia - have never before been brought together and investigated from this perspective as this collection does across time and space. Learning Latin and Greek [from Antiquity to the Present] will be the go-to resource for readers interested in the history of education. Here they can track the learning of the classical languages from ancient papyri to present-day textbooks and software, and probe the pedagogy of second-language study in both the Old and New Worlds, from Russia to Mexico, by way of Egypt, Italy, and the British Isles.' Jan Ziolkowski, Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Medieval Latin, Harvard University, and Director, Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection

This volume provides a unique overview of the broad historical, geographical and social range of Latin and Greek as second languages. It elucidates the techniques of Latin and Greek instruction across time and place, and the contrasting socio-political circumstances that contributed to and resulted from this remarkably enduring field of study. Providing a counterweight to previous studies that have focused only on the experience of elite learners, the chapters explore dialogues between center and periphery, between pedagogical conservatism and societal change, between government and the governed. In addition, a number of chapters address the experience of female learners, who have often been excluded from or marginalized by earlier scholarship.

1. Introduction: 'Learning me your language' Elizabeth Archibald, William Brockliss and Jonathan Gnoza
2. Papyri and efforts by adults in Egyptian villages to write Greek Ann Hanson
3. Teaching Latin to Greek speakers in antiquity Eleanor Dickey
4. Servius' Greek lessons Félix Racine
5. Pelasgian fountains: learning Greek in the early Middle Ages Michael Herren
6. Out of the mouth of babes and Englishmen: the invention of the vernacular grammar in Anglo-Saxon England Jay Fisher
7. First steps in Latin: the teaching of reading and writing in Renaissance Italy Robert Black
8. The teaching of Latin to the native nobility in Mexico in the mid-1500s: contexts, methods, and results Andrew Laird
9. Ut consecutivum under the Czars and under the Bolsheviks Victor Bers
10. Latin for girls: the French debate Françoise Waquet
11. Women's education and the Classics Fiona Cox
12. 'Solitary perfection?' The past, present, and future of elitism in Latin education Kenneth J. Kitchell, Jr
13. Exclusively for everyone - to what extent has the Cambridge Latin Course widened access to Latin? Bob Lister
14. Epilogue Emily Greenwood.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Classical history / classical civilisation [HBLA1], Language learning: specific skills [CJC], Language: history & general works [CBX]