– Why we do it –
Learning a foreign language gives you a clearer picture of how your own language works since you have to learn it from the ground up. In addition, any time you are able to communicate with someone in their mother tongue, you quickly gain their respect and are able to connect with them on a deeper level.
At OSNAS, we teach Spanish in the upper grades, but lay the foundation for this with in-depth training in Latin. Because Latin is no longer spoken, it requires some explanation as to why we spend the time and effort to learn it. Here are some of the reasons:
- Students who learn Latin have a firm grasp on how language works. It helps students categorize the elements of language into crystal clear categories that lead to orderly thinking and communicating. As the foundation of several other languages, once a student has learned Latin, he or she can much more easily acquire a modern day language.
- Latin leads to a robust vocabulary since over 50% of English words stem from Latin roots. For this reason, students who study Latin score better on the SAT standardized test than those who do not.
- Latin teaches students attention to detail. This is because Latin is an inflected language which means that students must pay close attention to the endings of the words to determine the positioning and function of the words in a sentence.
- Latin is the language of Biology and of many great works in Literature, Philosophy, Law, Theology and History. To know Latin is to have a clear window into the past, including the time period of Jesus and the Early Chuch.
- Latin is the time-tested discipline that in times past, young students learned almost exclusively to prepare them for all other subject matters. At one time, Harvard’s one entry requirement was for the student to have an adequate mastery of Latin and Greek.
– How we teach it –
Because God has given children an incredible capacity to soak up language, it is best to begin early. Our students begin learning Latin in the first grade. At first, much of the instruction revolves around acquiring a solid base in vocabulary through the Latin Program Picta Dicta. Students see an image and hear the pronunciation of the word before repeating it to the teacher.
After learning individual vocabulary words, the words are quickly brought together into sentences so that the student can see how the words function together. They also learn basic grammatical concepts which strongly reinforce the grammar instruction they receive in their English classes.
After a couple years of Picta Dicta, students study Latin grammar and vocabulary through resources from Memoria Press. From sixth to eighth grade, students engage in the Latin for Children series from Classical Academic Press (Primers A, B and C). These books teach students to read and write in Latin while following an adventurous storyline.
In high school, after studying Latin for eight years, students are well prepared to take Spanish. They learn not only by studying grammar and vocabulary, but through an immersive experience in which they hear, speak and write the language throughout class while learning about the various Spanish-speaking countries.