A Computer-Aided Study of Confusion in Latin Morphology

Abstract

The teaching of elementary Latin suffers from the same bane afflicting all language study: attrition is too high. This is generally acknowledged and widely lamented, but efforts to correct the situation have enjoyed very little success. There is good reason for this failure. We simply do not know enough about which areas of the subject are hardest for students to master, so we are unable to restructure syllabi to provide more balanced treatment; nor do we know which learning strategies tend to be most effective for the majority of students, so we are unable to offer sound advice to floundering scholars. The result is that each teacher is left to his or her own devices. The “good” teacher—bless his name—enjoys a high success rate but cannot share his success because it grows more out of instinctive behavior than out of cold choice. The “poor” teacher is doomed to a cycle of high drop rates, frustrated students, and fruitless self-examination. He is helpless and, it seems, unhelpable.