The "Lost" Language of Latin

Good afternoon all,
I hope everyone had a restful Spring Break! Let's talk Latin!

Notice the title of this post- the "Lost" Language of Latin. I use quotation marks around "lost" because, frankly, many question the idea of teaching a language that is considered "dead" and no longer spoken by any cultures or countries around the world. Truly, if Latin were so wonderful, wouldn't it still be a primary, spoken language today?

Yes, it would be. In fact, it is. Students and people around the world still speak, write, and listen to Latin everyday. That's because Latin is the root many of Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian). Latin is the source of 75-80% of all words in these languages. In addition, more than 65% of English words come from Latin (and more than 90% of those over two syllables). This helps students with reading comprehension, word decoding and encoding, and vocabulary acquisition, three of the five major skills required when learning to read. These skills are particularly useful for students planning to enter fields with large technical vocabularies. Those of medicine and law, for example, are primarily based on Latin.

Latin also helps students with their study of English literature. Dante, Milton, Swift, Tolkien, Lewis and more studied Latin very vigorously and their writings reflect that in word choice, sentence structure and content.  Though Shakespeare and Chaucer did not study Latin very assiduously, each had studied English translations of Latin originals.  Some of their tales are simply retellings of Greek and Latin myths.

Although I put little stock in standardized tests as drivers of curriculum, it certainly says something when students can pass any test put in front of them with ease. Such is the case of Latin students with regard to the SAT. Click here for a 2012 comparison of Latin students' SAT scores versus students of other subjects as well as a comparison against other languages.

So while Latin might not be the answer to all the ills of today's education system, when used as a tool to help students become masters of the English language, it can provide students a certain advantage in an uncertain educational climate.

Vivere est vincere
(To live is to conquer),
Kelly