Latin to GCSE Part 1 by Henry Cullen and John Taylor

Latin to GCSE Part 1 Reviews

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  Jerome Moran

  This two part course, published in April 2016, is the companion on the bookshelves if not in most classrooms to John Taylor s Greek To GCSE, and the prequel to his Latin Beyond GCSE.The course is co authored, but the joins hardly show Each author claims to be responsible for the whole of one of the parts The format of the two parts is almost identical, which helps to maintain consistency of style and approach across the course as a whole It may also be an advantage that Cullen was both a pupil and colleague of Taylor, therefore well familiar presumably with his modus operandi Inevitably, there is some overlap between Part 2, for which Taylor is responsible, and his Essential GCSE Latin The main advantages this new course has over its competitors are i like Greek To GCSE, it can be completed quickly than rival courses the main saving of time is in there being less reading material and background content and related follow up activities , and ii it is targeted almost exclusively ruthlessly, one might say, certainly unremittingly at the language requirements language only of the new OCR which endorses the publication GCSE specification In fact it could just as well be titled Latin For GCSE If it does not omit anything from the specification then it certainly does not add anything either, apart from the Background sections Background to the reading passages, that is, not background as in the Cambridge Latin Course CLC paralinguistic material The publisher s puff about the background content that it provides an excellent introduction to Roman culture alongside the language study is just that Users will certainly be missing out on the kind of coverage of Roman culture contained in most of its competitors But this is not part of the language requirements of the GCSE specification, which, as I have said, are the course s almost exclusive concern Another advantage as I see it is that it is not centred around some awful pseudo Roman John and Jane family plus dog , with slaves and other illiterates including the dog speaking in elite Latin very culturally authentic Other advantages over its rivals are that much care is taken to attempt to explain, rather than simply to state, Latin usage though some may feel that this is sometimes overdone , and that Part 2 of the course can be used as a stand alone revision guide for GCSE, containing as it does, inter alia, a summary of the required grammar and syntax, all the prescribed vocabulary and specimen language exam papers five of them These may go a long way to commending it over its rivals.The reading passages curiously called Exercises are made up Latin with all the drawbacks that entails retellings of well known Roman myths, legends and allegedly historical events, stuff they might not and should encounter actually in other recent courses, as the authors suggest in the Preface The penultimate chapter of the course consists of 20 pages of additional reading passages included for revision of the whole course Some guidance as to how best to use these, and how to get the most benefit from them would be helpful one feels that they might simply be omitted otherwise especially as the previous chapter concludes with the words Coverage of all GCSE grammar and vocabulary is now complete No help is given either with how to tackle the types of questions that will be set in the exam, i.e do s and don ts of unseens, comprehensions, grammar syntax questions, translation into Latin The closest the course gets to this is a section on how to tackle the typical complex sentence in Latin More could have been said too about decoding the various kinds of word terminations and the absolute importance of being able to do this successfully it is after all the most important skill to acquire for understanding an inflected language And, unpalatable though it may be, the sheer necessity of old fashioned learning of what needs to be learned, and of having a substantive as opposed to a procedural memory, needs to be stressed As the authors say in the Preface, it cannot be acquired by osmosis.The rationale to get to GCSE as quickly and effectively as possible while providing a sound platform for AS A Latin and the format of the books are very similar to those of Greek To GCSE The main differences of presentation are that Latin To GCSE makes over use of text boxes, some use of colour for the text pale blue only , and there are some photos and other images all of them very poorly reproduced in a uniform almost monochrome dingy grey blue though I concede, of course, that aesthetic appreciation is a subjective matter The differences of content are that Latin To GCSE contains specimen GCSE language papers, English into Latin sentences of the kind to be found in the new OCR specification, much fuller syntax summary and revision guide, an appendix on words with than one meaning and a skeleton guide to grammatical terminology.The approach to second language learning is traditional, i.e theory averse, though not dogmatically so But such is the emphasis on acquiring a sound grasp of grammar and syntax and an understanding of how the language works, there is little in the course to hold the interest of a person to whom this sort of stuff does not appeal Also, given that the format and approach are basically the same as those for Greek To GCSE, what works for high ability, self selected, well motivated handfuls one hand, usually of Greek learners may not work for mixed ability Latin groups, many of them perhaps conscripts for one year at least, at any rate Students beginning Greek have usually already covered the rudiments of Latin and therefore have an advantage over those beginning Latin These factors help to make the aims of the Greek course realistic None of these factors applies to Latin beginners are not likely to have any experience of a fully inflected literary language, and many most of them may not be anywhere near as talented linguistically or as motivated as those who do GreekAnd, as I have said, there is no paralinguistic material, meretricious though some of it may be, to grab them if learning the language doesn t.The question that needs to be asked is whether this new course will meet the needs of the bulk of the people including people outside a classroom who use it, and whether it will do so better than its competitors Put crudely, will they stand a better chance of getting a good grade in Latin at GCSE The statistics show that most GCSE Latin candidates already get good grades using other courses So that cannot be a USP for the new course Is the new course likely to recruit people to begin Latin and to continue with it successfully to GCSE The last question is by far the most important in a time of falling numbers for the take up of Latin and Greek The answer to it may make other questions about courses relative merits irrelevant Time, as they say, will tell But one thing is for sure, something that no course can alter and that no one should try to conceal for most people Latin is not an easy subject to do well in It may be deceptively easy to begin with, but it is not long before the gradient of difficulty gets progressively steeper There is reason to think that this course will make it relatively easier going for most learners.Each chapter of the course except for the final two chapters has the following contents, usually in this order Presentation and explanation of new grammar syntaxLatin sentences for translation to test understanding of new grammar syntaxEnglish sentences for translation into Latin to test understanding of new grammar syntaxRevision checkpointReading passages from Chapter 2 BackgroundSummary of chapter grammar syntaxNew vocabulary Latin English to be learned Note the relative order of new grammar syntax and reading passages And some visual material, of course.There is at the moment little bloatware in the form of the sort of supplementary materials that constitute the bulk of the CLC Some additional materials would be welcomed and indeed are forthcoming , especially by those using the course without the assistance of a regular teacher This is the way things are heading in any case with the learning of Latin and Greek though as far as numbers of learners are concerned things are generally going in reverse Even so, there were nearly 9,000 candidates for OCR GCSE Latin in 2015, with about 2,000 for the GCSE equivalent WJEC Macrons as guides to pronunciation are eschewed throughout, which some may regret The section on pronunciation is inadequate No guidance is given as to how to find out whether vowels are long or short, nor what difference this makes to their pronunciation Nor is it explained when the stress falls on a penultimate or antepenultimate syllable of a polysyllabic word though this would require an explanation of the principles of syllable division and the difference between heavy and light syllables There is no mention of how to pronounce repeated consonants, e.g as in annus or bellum, or aspirated consonants, nor how most single consonants are pronounced One gets the impression that it is not expected that the Latin in the books will be read aloud much unlike in the ancient world Not a GCSE requirement, of course, or not a language requirement at any rate, though students will presumably be expected to show some awareness of the sound of the language when studying the set texts especially verse for the literature part of the specification It is not generally known that Latin and Greek are the only subjects in which it is possible to study at GCSE level sophisticated literature written in languages other than English I can understand why the authors decided not to include this semi technical information at the outset of the course but it could have been given in an appendix to Part 1 or Part 2, or both It would be surprising if the course did not contain some errata and corrigenda, but I have not been through it with my fine tooth comb so I cannot comment on this.To conclude this is a thoroughly pragmatic, exam oriented Latin language course as such it can be recommended It can also be recommended for beginners including adults who wish to reach the level of GCSE without necessarily aiming at an actual GCSE qualification What is needed now and is not likely to see the light of day is a course that addresses the OCR specification as a whole as with other GCSE subjects , or at least one which reaches the parts that this one does not reach.
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  Em @ Fantasy Book Review

  This has been a lifesaver for me I ve been using the Cambridge course but the grammar is spread out and I found by the time I got to Book III, it was all starting to fall apart in my mind I realise that this may say about me than the course materials, but after working my way through this book and immediately ordering the second, I have a much firmer grip on the language Even after the first few chapters, I was much confident about case endings and could write simple sentences, something i d certainly not felt able to do before.A brilliant resource, well explained, and intelligently organised.
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  Sandford

  This book helps me return to my study of Latin I took GCSE in 2003, aged 47, amongst youngsters at Norwich School I achieved a grade A which I am proud of This situation itself was a most weird experience.How this came about was my being part of the first cohort of Bob Lister s innovative venture into independent learning of Latin with the Cambridge Classics Project.This particular textbook would have met my needs at my mature time of study I was somewhat irritated with a need to cover some aspects of culture etc with CLC, feeling it rather puerile for someone my age, and also a course that doesn t really make you think I just wanted to learn the language I took language and prose for the exam, but now looking back, I feel let down by the lack of rigid study on these aspects, and have a feeling that I could have got a star if there was a rigorous approach.What I am getting at, is that looking at the exam paper, I would have loved to tackle the English to Latin paper, but was not prepared for this This course really gets to grips from starters, and I am rather thrilled that I can tackle much of the early stuff after such a long time away from the language I have skimmed much of Part 1 for reassurance, but will now slow down to imbue it all, and then Part 2 etc.It would be great if such a course could be available on the internet This book is just what I need.
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  Jill Hudson

  At last, a Latin textbook which combines clear explanations and a rigorous approach to grammar with direct relevance to current exam specifications and doesn t waste valuable time on long and involved stories which take way too much time to read and are often frankly overfacing This book could easily be used by a student learning on their own, or even by a non specialist teacher learning along with the class Only two things would improve it 1 answers to the exercises, perhaps provided in a separate book this may be available, but there was no reference to it in the book itself and 2 proper coloured pictures rather than strangely stained blue ones
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  parenting-relationships.co Customer

  Having made a poor attempt at GCE latin at school 40 years ago I have always wanted to prove to myself that I could learn it This book is set out very well and easy to follow The answer key is easy to obtain from Bloomsbury as an independant learner so that you can easily assess your progress So far it is going well and i m really enjoying it.
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  Sophiee

  I m currently taking an evening class in Latin for adult learners, and having attempted to work through the basics of the language with the Cambridge Reading Latin set as well as the well loved Cambridge Latin Course, I can honestly say this book is infinitely better.It starts at the very beginning, and covers everything from grammar to vocabulary to translation skills I particularly like that they offer simplified versions of texts by famous authors e.g Virgil for translation from the very beginning, as it gives the learner a real sense of achievement I can see how they would be good for school age learners, too, as they are straight forward without being patronising.Regardless of whether you intend to take the GCSE or not, I would definitely recommend this book as a support for your study.
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  SIMONA DIANI

  Prodotto arrivato come di consueto nei tempi previsti, valido per chi vuole dare un approccio non consueto al latino Si traduce dal latino in inglese
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  Daniel Prior

  An excellent book Very clearly set out with just the right amount of practice materials Very pleased to have this.
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  N. Sarver

  I got this as a refresher after learning with Wheelock s Latin ten years ago The design of this course is excellent The explanations are really genuinely insightful and easy to grasp There have been multiple times where I ll go over a grammatical concept and wish I had had this book when I first learned The amount of vocabulary to learn per chapter is manageable and Latin vocabulary is pretty easy to learn anyways There aren t a ton of sentence translation exercises but you ll be reading extended passages by the second chapter I can t recommend it highly enough.