Linguam Latinam didicisse: Objectives and Challenges in Contemporary Latin Teaching

Abstract

What do we teach when we teach Latin in a modern Slovenian grammar school? What are our goals when entering the classroom, and what do we expect our students to learn? These questions seem deceptively simple. In the most pragmatic sense, their answers are provided by the current curriculum for Latin, which sets out the lessons’ objectives and the student’s expected abilities. This paper sheds some light on the latter from a practical perspective by looking at the Slovenian national Latin proficiency annual competition for third-year grammar school students. It assumes that the competition tasks can be considered, at least to a certain extent, as a “practical” supplement to the curriculum, as sufficiently representative answers to the question of what goals are set out in a purely pragmatic way. They are also an illustrative demonstration of the expected competencies students should have after almost three years of grammar school learning. The competition questions, and partly the dilemmas posed to the assessors by the scoring of the answers, serve as the basis for reflection on where the strengths and didactic challenges of contemporary Latin teaching lie.