Learn to Read Latin

[languageleon]

I am such a pain, I know

Does anyone have insight on "Learn to Read Latin" by Keller and Russell?

I own the entire Wheelock's set, but have lent it to a friend. The more and more I read reviews about that series, the more it seems that you don't really learn how to read until the end of the second book (while the first focuses on grammar and rote, the second on reading). Again, my personal opinion was that it was fairly easy to reads texts that were at my level.

My only question is whether a text like "Learn to Read Latin" would be sufficiently worth it to master reading? Or is the Wheelock/Moreland & Fleischer the only path to endorse?

[quendidil]

Or is the Wheelock/Moreland & Fleischer the only path to endorse?

It most certainly isn't. I know this isn't the series you're talking about, but Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata will really get you to READ Latin directly rather than translating it mentally.

[MarcusE]

There's lots on Lingua Latina per se illustrata on this forum but I'm on chapter 30 now and it really is a masterpiece. I'm not saying it's the only thing you should use but it would be silly not to make this the centerpiece of latin learning if fluent reading is your goal.

[tronDB]

I learned grammar from K&R's Learn to Read Latin, which was a kind of pedagogical experiment on the part of my college with what is a relatively new and untested text. From my experience though I have nothing but positive comments to offer. LTRL was *awesome*. It was thorough, rigorous, orderly, demanding, and used TONS of real Latin passages from masterful and difficult classical authors. By the end of the first half of the book the student is reading long passages from Virgil, and it only gets better. By the end of the book the readings take up far more space than the grammar instruction, which is itself, by virtue of its clarity and attentiveness to the needs of students who are not well grounded in English grammar, extremely thorough and satisfying.

[alxmp]

This is THE book IMO. As they say in the preface, it is based on Moreland and Fleischer but far more detailed. It has a separate and massive (600 pages) workbook for which there is a key. The workbook is superb with copious drills, exercises and translations. The key is not published but available on request to the author. It's a pdf and is free. The pdf was mailed to me within an hour! See the FAQ for details:

http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/latinfaqs.html

It only uses original texts as well!!

Hope this helps.

Alex

[karenbudde]

I am learning so much from this text. My students would never be able to use it as a primary text, but the readings are wonderful and can be shared. I would have used this as a review text for my praxis; that's how useful it is!