Montgomery
College (Rockville, Maryland)
Department of Reading, ESL, Foreign Languages, and Philosophy
Syllabus, LT101-23711 (distance learning), Fall
2000. Department
phone: 301-251-7407.
Elementary Latin I,
3 semester hours. Evening
campus phone: 301-279-5242.
Dr. David N.
Wigtil, Instructor. Home phone:
301-540-1121; home fax: 603-947-2806 (long-distance).
E-mail: wigtil@his.com Web: http://www.his.com/wigtil.
Please try to send
me all e-mail, if at all possible, to the college on-line system only, rather
than to my personal e-mail.
Textbooks: Oxford
Latin Course, Part I, second edition, by M. Balme and J. Morwood (1996).
Testing and grading: - Three tests, posted seven days before they
are due, 60% of course grade (20% apiece).
- Textbook exercises, 10% of course grade, due
weekly on Monday.
- Final exam:
30% of course grade, due by December 13, 2000.
>> Grading Scale: A (100-90%); B (89-80%); C (79-70%); D (69-60%); F for lower
scores.
Course Objectives: To teach introductory classical Latin
vocabulary, pronunciation, and grammar; to promote language skills in Latin
(reading plus exercises and some oral drill to assist reading); to introduce
the culture, customs, and history of ancient Roman society; to show the
extensive use of Latin-derived words in English vocabulary.
Course Description: Introduction to basic classical Latin,
including the fundamentals of pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary. Several instructional techniques can be used
by the student, as directed by the instructor, but with primary focus on
translation, repetition and drill, and written exercises.
Target Audience: Students with no prior experience in the
Latin language; there are no prerequisites for this course.
Why
Latin? Latin at its peak was once
the exclusive language for about 10 to 20 million people in Europe and a second
language for millions more, a necessity for anyone conducting business with (or
under the oppression of) the dominion of Rome. As local versions of spoken
Latin began to evolve into various separate tongues (the twelve-plus Romance
languages), Latin itself continued for over a millennium as a lingua franca and
scholarly language, and the Latin alphabet still remains the preferred means
for writing down the world's languages.
And even today Radio Finland offers short Latin newscasts each week via
shortwave radio and the World Wide Web, reckoning that more world citizens
understand Latin than the four million who speak Finnish! Latin has also heavily influenced the
vocabulary of all non-Romance languages in Europe (such as German, Polish,
Russian, and Dutch), among which English has imported the greatest number of
Latin-based words, now counting perhaps 50% of its vocabulary as Latinate.
How
should I study? Studying a foreign
language means both adopting a new method of communication and learning a new
way to think. Cramming doesn't work;
mere silent reading doesn't work. You must make mistakes to make progress in a
language! There is no other way. Do not be embarrassed to try. Those who don't try don't learn. I recommend the following study techniques,
some of which are very different from what you do in other subjects.
·
Plan on six hours per week of study with the book and your notes,
outside of class time or on-line time.
You must study at least half an hour each day, for no more than 45
minutes at a sitting (try two sessions a day, 30 minutes each, for six days
every week.)
·
Do all written exercises in writing, and submit them on time..
·
Further, do all "written" exercises out loud (even in an
e-mail class!) – oral practice is absolutely essential. Read all Latin textual materials out loud at
least three times through.
·
Find study partners in the class, and get together or phone one another
often.
Your mouth will
feel strange at first, the spellings will contradict all your instincts, the
grammar and the words may seem peculiar...but soon Latin will start to become
your own way of communicating and thinking, as it still is today for perhaps
millions of people.
SPECIAL NOTE: This electronic "distance
learning" course requires a high degree of self-motivation. It is in effect an independent-study
course. You do not have a teacher
to stare you in the eye, or fellow students with whom you will try to keep
pace. So you must keep yourself
going, since you must adhere to a schedule of homework assignments and
tests. You may attend any Latin evening
class session that I am also teaching this semester (6:30-7:45pm, Mondays and
Wednesdays, in room HU 213 on the Rockville campus…just be sure to tell me
before class starts who you are!). I
expect to hear from you, by phone or by e-mail, whenever you have difficulties,
questions, or comments. If you do not
contact me, I can only presume that you have no problems, since I cannot read
your mind!
How
fast will I learn? You took five to
ten years – or more! – to learn English well (or whatever your native language
may be). Foreign language teaching
methods can speed up this process quite a bit, but it will still take time to
read literary Latin texts with just a dictionary at your side, perhaps two or
three years of college classes (as opposed to intensive, summer-study programs
at institutions in other states or countries).
Furthermore, even the most
linguistically gifted students always feel like they’re behind by several
weeks, so you may feel a twinge: there
is none of the instant gratification we usually enjoy in the modern world. It will take at least a month just for you
to quit hearing “lingua latina” as a code word and to start feeling
automatically that it means…“lingua latina”!
And yes, you must memorize: in college choir everyone agreed we didn’t
really know a song by memory until we had sung it 100 to 150 times. Language is very closely related to singing,
so repeat, memorize, repeat, and memorize, for it may take you 100 repetitions
to permanently learn a grammatical pattern or a new set of vocabulary. Heed the schoolmaster: be patient, work hard, study every day!
What
is the instructor’s job? I cannot
make you learn. After all, it’s
possible to learn any language just by self-study. I do not pursue or monitor or hound you. I want only to assist you in learning. My function is to explain, to direct you on how to practice (you
have to do the real practice on your own), to motivate you to meet class
deadlines, to evaluate your work and report to the world how well you’ve done,
and, yes, to be the focus of your occasional confusion and frustration.
If you have any
disability that may cause you difficulty in this class, even with the
electronic delivery, I will attempt to work out whatever arrangements you wish
that may assist you. I want to assure
that you have the same chances as everyone else to succeed in this course. To initiate such arrangements, feel free to
contact me before or after class or during my office hours, or to telephone
me. The MC Office of Disability Support
Services in room CAB 122 (Counseling and Advising Building), 301-279-5058, can
offer specific kinds of assistance, too.
I expect every one
of you to do your very best, both in oral and written language. I expect you to adhere to the MC student
Code of Conduct in the Student Handbook and to the highest ethical behavior (no
cheating or plagiarism allowed, of course), both in doing your own work and in
promoting the best learning situation for everyone else in the course. I will do my best to help each of you learn
as well as you can.
Montgomery
College, Rockville, Maryland.
Latin
LT101-23711, Fall 2000, Dr. David N. Wigtil, wigtil@his.com, 301-540-1121.
OFFICE HOURS. Office hours are by appointment.
ATTENDANCE. Attendance will be gauged by the regularity
of homework submitted. All assignments
must be in my hands by 11:59pm on Monday evening each week. The first homework assignment is due on
September , 2000, and the remainder come due weekly thereafter, including
during "midsemester break". Montgomery
College permits no more than one absence (skipped homework submission, in our
case) for classes that meet once a week, which is how we'll define this
course. It permits me to drop you
from the class roll and assign a grade for the course if there is another
absence (skipped homework submission).
I urge you to "attend" class regularly. You must scan the forum and library for
LT101 yourself, and contact other students to collect notes and other
information for any period that you miss.
- NOTICE: No advance excuse will be accepted for
absence from (in our case, late submission of) the final exam.
I accept as valid excuses only
personal illness affecting your academic activity, severe illness or death
among your family and loved ones, or other unavoidable personal emergency.
TESTS and FINAL EXAM.
Tests and the
final exam may cover any material presented in the textbook (both in the
chapter readings and in the exercises) and any material presented in the
"handouts" and similar materials in the on-line library and the forum
for LT101.
- There are no make-ups for individual tests.
- There is no make-up for the final exam. No advance excuses will be accepted for absences from the final exam period. Only absences due to incapacitating personal illness or severe illness or death among your family and loved ones will be excused after the fact. Mechanical problems including equipment failure or other electronic trouble, work schedules, and so on, will not be accepted as excuses. The final exam is 30% of your grade; I recommend completing it in a timely fashion, to assure that I receive it in time to score it and assign you your course grade. The college permits a failing grade to be assigned to students who inexcusably miss the final.
INCOMPLETES. Students who stop participating in class
without proper arrangements with me receive a "W" or an "F"
(not an "incomplete").
Students who skip the final exam receive an "F". I assign an "I" only by prior
arrangement and in the face of unavoidable and unforeseeable circumstances of
life. All incompletes must be made
complete within four weeks of semester's end, roughly February 1, 2001, or they
revert to failures. I pursue no one in
these matters; you must initiate all actions with me and with the college.
Schedule
Montgomery College, Rockville, Maryland.
Latin LT101-23711, Fall 2000, Dr.
David N. Wigtil, wigtil@his.com, 301-540-1121.
All assignments are due by 11:59pm on
the date shown (Monday).
Week Oxford
Latin Course
Aug.
28 Pronunciation section on pages
6-7. Capitulum primum.
Sep. 4 (holiday
-- no official class session)
Sep. 11 Capitulum
alterum.
Sep. 18 Capitulum
tertium. Exercises for capitulum alterum are due.
Sep. 25 Capitulum
quartum. Exercises for capitulum tertium are due.
Oct. 2 Examen primum is due. Capitulum
quintum. Exercises for capitulum quartum are due.
Oct. 9 Capitulum
sextum. Exercises for capitulum quintum are due.
Oct. 16 Capitulum
septimum. Exercises for capitulum sextum are due.
Oct. 23 Examen alterum is due. Capitulum
octavum. Exercises for capitulum septimum are due.
Oct. 30 Capitulum
nonum. Exercises for capitulum octavum are due.
Nov. 6 Capitulum
decimum. Exercises for capitulum nonum are due.
Nov. 13 Capitulum
undecimum. Exercises for capitulum decimum are due. Examen
tertium is due.
Nov. 20 Capitulum
dodecimum. Exercises for capitulum undecimum are due.
Nov. 27 Capitulum
tertium decimum. Exercises for capitulum dodecimum are due.
Dec. 4 Capitulum
quartum decimum. Exercises for capitulum tertium decimum are due.
Dec. 11 Capitulum
quintum decimum. Exercises for capitulum quartum decimum are due.
Dec. 13 (Wednesday)
Examen
ultimum (the final examination) is due by 11:59pm. Exercises for capitulum quartum decimum are due at the time of the final exam.