Abstract:

Latin is seeing a decline in interest on the part of students and institutions.

Why does this happen? Latin is certainly not a language of communication, despite the existence of websites and radio stations in Latin, and it is not even a living language because there is no native speaker of Latin. Can we, however, really consider it dead? By defining it as a language that is ‘historically completed’ but not ‘exhausted’, we can detect its continuity and transformation. Several scholars have argued, nationally and internationally, that the very long vitality of the Latin language should be taken into account, from Dante, Galilei, Descartes, Kant, Pascoli, to the Catholic liturgy of the 20th century. Furthemore, words such as curriculum, album, idem, ad honorem, plus, audio, bonus, campus, ego, deficit, extra, excursus, focus, referendum, et cetera, video, super, tutor belong to the international lexicon, without the speakers being aware of it. Sixty-five per cent of English words have a Latin etymology and since 2009, even Beijing University has opened a study centre called Latinitas sinica.

Latin, in fact, has a high educational value and teaches reasoning and, without any doubt, it can be said that: the study of Latin improves knowledge of one’s mother tongue by helping to speak and write better; the classics are a ‘school of freedom’ because they educate to listen, to recognise one's own limits and the value of others, tending towards self-improvement. On the other hand, analysis of SAT scores (Scholastic Aptitude Test) shows, up to 2016, that people perform better in oral and written language expression than those who do not study Latin.

In view of the educational value of Latin and the tendency to decline, especially in Italy, in the study of Latin, a systematic review of the national and international scientific literature has been launched in order to identify possible educational itineraries to follow, based on emerging results. In fact, the teaching models and methodologies employed have been numerous over the centuries: they range from the classical method, which probably dates back to the Ancien Régime and involves the accentuation of the grammatical aspect, to the neo-comparative method, which emphasises the elements of analogies between ancient and modern languages, based on problem-based teaching.

The preliminary results of the scientific review of the literature showed that: the Latin language, with the exceptions of the nature method devised by Orberg and followed in Italy by Miraglia, is considered a non-living language; the model still in use in Italian schools, despite various methodological innovations, is that of so-called ‘rational grammar’, which uses universal logical-syntactic categories (of logical analysis) to be able to analyse any language.

At the moment, the Latin Excellence Programme, which started in September 2022 in Great Britain and includes the study of Latin at Key Stage 3 (11-14 years old) and other activities, such as visits to Roman heritage sites, is proving successful, probably because there has been in-depth, detailed and varied planning. One could, therefore, design non-linear educational itineraries that also involve the methodology of Gamification or the use of generative Artificial Intelligence (development of an intelligent tutoring system (ITS) or a non-player character (NPC).

Keywords:

Latin didactics, inclusive technology, teacher education, innovative didactics, artificial intelligence.