HIGHLAND

Spotlight on Faculty
THE JOY OF
SPEAKING
Article Written by Celia Kelly, Middle School Latin Teacher
When I was a senior in high school, a friend of mine asked
our Latin teacher if we could try speaking the language in
class. He was struggling in Latin, and hoped that speaking
would help him better grasp the grammar, as it had in
Spanish. My teacher, though a wonderful and passionate
educator, could not wrap his head around this request.
Why would anyone want to spend time learning to speak
Latin, when there are no ancient Romans around?
A New Approach to Presenting Latin
For the past four years, my approach to teaching Latin
has in many ways mirrored the way I was taught. Though
I’ve kept students engaged with games and fun lessons
on Roman culture, the core of my instruction has been
teaching students to memorize grammar and vocabulary
and translate passages of Latin into English. Increasingly,
however, Latin teachers are moving away from grammartranslation
toward more active, communicative approaches
to teaching Latin.
This summer, Highland granted me a faculty fellowship
to participate in Rusticatio Virginiana, a spoken-Latin
immersion program run by SALVI (Septentrionale
Americanum Latinitatis Vivae Institutum), or the North
American Institute for Living Latin. Held at the Claymont
Mansion in Charles Town, West Virginia. The program
is tailored for teachers like me, who know Latin on paper
but have never tried to speak it in conversation, as well as
veteran Latin speakers. For seven days we spoke nothing
but Latin, as we attended classes on topics from food and
clothing to the history of the mansion, played language
games, discussed Latin readings, practiced and performed
short plays, and prepared meals for the group.
Even our free time was in Latin — we took nature walks, told
stories on the porch, played Bananagrams and Texas Hold
‘Em, had a bonfire for July 4th, and more. Each night, I kept a
journal in Latin, recording what we had done that day, what I
had learned, and what teaching methods I had observed.
Spoken-Latin Offers Meaningful Contexts
Why speak Latin when there are no ancient Romans
around? As we say at Rusticatio, non discimus ut loquamur;
loquimur ut discamus (we’re not learning to speak;
we’re speaking to learn). Speaking gives you much
more practice with the language than you get by just
translating a Latin passage into English. Furthermore,
speaking makes grammar and vocabulary stick better
in your brain because you’re practicing them in
meaningful contexts.
18 Highland Magazine highlandschool.org