This article investigates the different uses of the Cambridge Latin Course Explorer Tool in the classroom, and students' perceptions of this, through a case study of a Year 8 class in an all-girls' comprehensive school. Student perceptions of this tool were a particular focus of the research, exploring its enhancement of students' enjoyment of the subject, its impact on vocabulary retention, and what they considered to be a reduced difficulty of translation. However, it also brought to light students' misgivings about the tool, including a sense of guilt in some pupils, who were of the opinion that their use of the Explorer Tool could be considered as ‘cheating'. Others, meanwhile, felt that it detracted from the ‘process' of translating to the point that they believed it actively hindered their learning.

This paper aims to investigate whether, by activities designed as a journey from present to past, students will gain an in-depth knowledge of Roman culture and civilisation, proving interest in them, and a better understanding of the contemporaneity and the community they are living in. Latin language and Roman culture are the basis of the European culture, and this subject is often perceived by students as useless, currently, because Latin is a dead language and Roman culture seems to be too far from their reality. I believe that it is necessary for students to have knowledge of the Latin language and Roman culture not only to know what was before them, but also to gain a better understanding of the world in which they live through the studying of this subject.

This paper explores the merits of learning classical languages in an informal environment. It is argued that voluntary clubs offer a variety of benefits for students and teachers and may help promote the longevity of the discipline. For teachers, clubs can be a flexible way to teach Greek or Latin to the next generation in schools that may not be willing to offer one or both languages as subjects in the formal curriculum. For students, clubs can be an opportunity to learn freely and forgivingly in a relaxed and non-pressurised environment; an informal Greek club can help develop the skills of students formally learning Latin. Language clubs can also be used to make Classics more accessible into the future, as dated ideas of Classics being exclusive to only the most privileged and bright students can be disposed of. In this paper the author shall draw on her own experience as well as the experiences of students and teachers in Australia and abroad.1

The new ITT Common Core Framework (CCF) for teachers expects trainee and early-career teachers to adapt their teaching to support all students in class (Department for Education, 2021). What used to be called ‘differentiation’ is now referred to as ‘adaptive teaching’ and full details of what it consists of, as far as the Department for Education in England is concerned, can be found on pages 19–20 of the CCF document. Much of the advice of that document is about supporting students with special educational needs and disabilities, about teachers’ need to recognise that different students have different levels of prior attainment and may have barriers to learning, and how different types of student grouping may affect learning in different ways. It dismisses as a ‘common misconception’ that students have different learning styles and warns against teachers creating ‘distinct tasks for different groups of pupils’ or ‘setting lower expectations for particular pupils’.

Use of rhetorical figures has been an element of persuasive speech at least since Gorgias of Leontini, for whom such deliberate deviations from ordinary literal language were a defining feature of what he called the ‘psychagogic art’. But must we consider figures of speech limited to an ornamental and merely stylistic function, as some ancient and still many modern theorists suggest? Not according to contemporary cognitive rhetoric, which proposes that figures of speech can play a fundamentally argumentative role in speech by evoking a level of shared meaning between speaker and listener, and simultaneously by affording the possibility of reorganizing this common ground. This paper argues that, in Latin literature, zeugma—the ‘linking together’ of two elements (usually nouns or prepositional phrases) with a third (usually a verb) that is semantically compatible with only one of them—can and very often does operate argumentatively, and that it does so by surfacing figurative relationships that normally remain below the conscious awareness of Latin speakers and by imparting a certain structure to these relationships. What very often motivates the selection of elements within zeugma—and what makes zeugma more than simply a stylistic device—are in fact metaphorical structures that are highly conventionalized in Latin's semantic system. In tapping into symbolic associations that are deeply entrenched in the language and thought of Latin speakers, zeugma therefore provided a ready-made device for constructing arguments in context.

The ability to translate unseen passages is a skill tested in both Latin A-level and the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma. Higher IB candidates are expected to translate a passage of 105–125 words of Latin poetry (in this case, Ovid's Metamorphoses) as the first of their externally marked papers. The International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) uses unseen passages to ‘measure the [students’] ability to understand and translate texts in the original language’ (2014, p. 25). The passages are marked according to two criteria: (a) meaning; (b) vocabulary and grammar. In order to access the highest grades, the students must provide a ‘logical translation [in which] errors do not impair the meaning’ and ‘render vocabulary appropriately and grammar accurately and effectively’ (IBO, 2014, pp. 28–9).

This article illustrates the importance of teaching Roman numerals, a component of a Latin language programme, as part of a Maths curriculum in a Spanish primary school. The aim is to contextualise the topic with concrete examples, supported by ancient Roman objects such as the milestone. The author discusses the relevance of a more integrated cross-curricular lesson to teach Roman numerals so that students better understand their use and make comparisons between ancient Roman and more modern traditions and culture, and to understand Roman influences on the modern age. Lastly, the author describes a teaching experiment in a Spanish primary school using some ad hoc materials to fulfil the aim of the study. The study outlines the positive results of integrating Roman numerals within the Maths lesson and shows that the students gained a richer and more valuable learning experience as they made reference to the concrete objects.

This article identifies a papyrus in Warsaw, P.Vars. 6, as a fragment of the large Latin–Greek glossary known as Ps.-Philoxenus. That glossary, published in volume II of G. Goetz's Corpus Glossariorum Latinorum on the basis of a ninth-century manuscript, is by far the most important of the bilingual glossaries surviving from antiquity, being derived from lost works of Roman scholarship and preserving valuable information about rare and archaic Latin words. It has long been considered a product of the sixth century a.d., but the papyrus dates to c.200, and internal evidence indicates that the glossary itself must be substantially older than that copy. The Ps.-Philoxenus glossary is therefore not a creation of Late Antiquity but of the Early Empire or perhaps even the Republic. Large bilingual glossaries in alphabetical order must have existed far earlier than has hitherto been believed.

This study originates from my curiosity to explore a different Latin teaching approach to address some students’ misconception that Latin is an unnecessarily complicated language that no one speaks anymore.

This case study was prompted by the identification, in observations and in discussion with the normal class teacher, of pupil demotivation and disaffection during Latin lessons, and the fact that this represented a considerable barrier to attainment and progress. My observation of this phenomenon coincided with Year 9 submitting their GCSE options. The combination of apparently ambiguous attitudes towards the subject and the fact that these attitudes were being brought to the fore explicitly because of the options choices drew my attention to pupil perceptions of the subject. It seemed to me that understanding the way in which pupils perceive the subject might be instructive for my own teaching practice, allowing me to better understand what pupils enjoy about the subject, what they find difficult, what enthuses them and what turns them off. Furthermore, the place of Latin within schools in general, and the particular school in which I conducted this study, is not something that should be taken for granted. It seemed to me, therefore, that this case study might provide some insight into whether Latin is a subject that young people feel is relevant and perhaps might offer some insight into what can allow Latin to have as inclusive an appeal as possible.