I recently came a cross a Latin textbook I had never seen before, by Prendergast, from the Mastery Series.
I believe it would be useful for a student who has learned Latin for a few years, and who wants to gain confidence in oral Latin.
I have now started to produce this as an audio course,which can be accessed here:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/14215574
I wrote a brief introduction to the course here.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/14197282
Thank you for the introduction to that work, it’s always interesting to learn about the variety of teaching materials that is out there.
That method reminds me of the drills found in audiolingual teaching and I think it would probably suffer from the same problems: Wouldn’t it be very boring to learn in such a mechanical, repetitive way?
I’m not even saying the method wouldn’t work, but I think it would take an extremely motivated learner to stick with such a method for years.
I agree. This book would suit someone with several years of Latin study, as a quick way to generate a lot of structured oral Latin on a regular basis, to intuitively revise their grammar - similar to a musician playing scales - a boring but necessary exercise. What is unique about this course is that it is focused entirely on oral Latin. I would recommend it to anyone wanting to move from non-oral Latin to oral Latin, as it builds oral confidence.
Salvete,
Thank you, Evan, for bringing this method to our attention. Prendergast also wrote the Handbook to the Mastery Series (Google Books, 1868, free download) in which he explains his Mastery-method. Admittedly, it is rather repetitive (both the method, which is of course the point to enable proper memorization, but also the Handbook itself), but he makes some good points. For example:
Experience has taught me that rote learning of isolated new words is in many cases not very helpful (unless they represent concrete things, of course). Without context to demonstrate their use (construction [very important for verbs], specific meaning), isolated words are almost impossible to memorize. I believe more and more that phrases are what matters, not words. “Scientification” of language acquisition (via heavy emphasise on grammer, something Prendergast also finds problematic, at least at the early stages) also is less and less appealing to me.
As for the repetitiveness, Prendergasts says:
If the repetitions weary the beginner, it will be because he has not mastered them. Our colloquial speech is but a tissue of repetitions of 200 words, mixed up with a variety of nouns and verbs in a very limited number of constructions; and, although we use those 200 words and those constructions incessantly, the repetitions are not irksome.
By the way, the examples in Evan’s exposition of the method might be a bit misleading. Prendergast emphasises the importance of long sentences.
All in all, I find it an interesting alternative approach. Although I need to have a closer look at how it works in reality.
Valete,
Carolus Raeticus
Hello Carolus,
Thanks for looking over this. There are few courses or textbooks of this type for Latin in existence - although doubtless new ones will emerge as Google continues its mission to digitise the world’s libraries.
I have been working through the course, and the exposition I outlined is more or less exactly that recommended by Prendergast; every long sentence (comprising one exercise in the audio course) is to be broken down to its simplest unit, and then built up in steps, word by word, until the final full sentence is reached, and then the build-up is to be made into a mash-up (out of order), with the full long sentence as the goal.
Here is Prendergast’s example of how to turn a model sentence into an exercise:
Prendergast writes “not more than one word should be changed at a time in each sentence”
Long sentence: Medicus meus, amice, vicino patrui mei hoc narrabat.
Deconstruction:
Narrabat.
Medicus narrabat
Medicus meus narrabat
Medicus meus hoc narrabat
Medicus meus hoc nuper narrabat
Medicus meus, amice, hoc nuper narrabat
etc
etc until the final sentence is reached.
The student then translates into Latin in correct word order, and then translates sentences from the list randomly, out of order. Prendergast also introduces tense changes when he ‘rings the changes’, and recommends that the student also introduces noun variations,using previously learned vocabulary.
Having used the recordings I have made on myself, I find the system is good - it seems to work for me.
You can find the first exercises in audio format here.https://www.patreon.com/posts/14215574
His method is similar to that of Jean Manesca’s, and also has similarities to the Ollendorff methodology - but for producing Latin orally on the fly, I think Prendergast’s exercises are superior.
If anyone using the oral course I am putting together has any comments or critique, please drop me a note; resources such as this are usually made better by constructive criticism.
Salve!
Thank you for your help. I’ll definitely have a closer look at this (I am currently waiting for the arrival of a printed copy of Prendergast’s Latin exercises).
Vale,
Carolus Raeticus
Thanks. I am working on this material consistently now - and am greatly enjoying translating rapidly into Latin as I listen to the English recorded example. I have a couple of people going over the audio and proofing.
Comments and criticism are welcome, as this is the only way a course like this can improve.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/14215574
So far I am up to exercise 50 - each exercise takes some time to prepare - to write out the iterations, proof read them, then record, and then review the recording (while making practical use of it).
Here is a sample exercise: A bell is run after the English is read - giving just enough time to comfortably translate out loud into idiomatic Latin ‘on the fly’.
This textbook is very intriguing. Since the initial post in this thread, I have read some of Prendergast’s explanations, including those given in his other books. His writings, including the handbook and his book entitled The Mastery of Languages, are very repetitive and hard to follow, and interspersed with justification as to why his method is superior to all others. The fifth edition of the Latin method has improved instructions which do clear up some questions, and seeing how the French, German, and Spanish editions are made clarifies how the Latin one should be used. I do not yet grasp perfectly how he intended the textbook to be used, but it’s clear that it was meant for complete beginners with not a word of Latin.
The method is essentially one of repetition until the sentences and parts of sentences are thoroughly engraved in the memory. The student should be able to give the Latin or the English on command for each sentence. This immediately gave me the idea of making a deck for Anki.
His method calls for some creativity in creating new sentences by inserting newly learned words in past sentences. Supplementary Anki decks could be made for this purpose by creative people.
Since Anki supports an unlimited number of fields (“cards” that are 3-sided, 4-sided, etc.) and since it also supports audio files, it would be interesting to add Molendinarius’s audio to the decks.
Anyone interested?