| Note: the description of required Latin language contents given below is based on wide-ranging consultation by members of the Classical Association of South Africa with educators country-wide over a period of years, and is not based solely on previous syllabi. |
| PART ONE - TEACHER GUIDANCE IN THE INTERPRETATION OF THE SUBJECT STATEMENT FOR THE LATIN LANGUAGE, with particular reference to the application of the Generic Language Outcomes to the specifics of Latin learning and teaching |
| CHAPTER 1 of the NATIONAL CURRICULUM STATEMENT will be taken as read and it needs no further elucidation nor special application to the needs of Latin learning and teaching. |
| What follows must be read in conjunction with the LANGUAGE SUBJECT STATEMENT FOR LATIN, CHAPTER 2: LANGUAGES (LATIN AS SECOND ADDITIONAL LANGUAGE) |
| DEFINITION - to be read in conjunction with the Definition in LANGUAGE SUBJECT STATEMENT AND LEARNING PROGRAMME FOR LATIN |
| All languages are tools for thought and communication. Learning to use language effectively enables learners to think and acquire knowledge, to express their identities, feelings and ideas, to interact with others, and to manage their world. In this context, Latin, although no longer considered a spoken language (but used communicatively in the classroom), enhances communication because of the manner in which it enables learners to think abstractly about language and acquire a broader linguistic basis for communication, enhancing as it does their command of English and (to a lesser degree Afrikaans) vocabulary, and by making them aware of contrasts in linguistic structure between the African languages and other classroom languages. |
| Although no longer spoken in a wider context as a living tongue, Latin has a profound effect on the learner's ability to communicate. Although it is mainly conducive to text-based learning, and is usually learnt with another modern language as medium of learning and teaching, it facilitates all aspects of aurality and orality as well as heightening the learner's ability to communicate in oral or written form. Within the classroom it is to be used communicatively, particularly by means of simple dialogues, questions and commands, and by reading aloud Latin texts, both poetry and prose. Beside the benefits of vocabulary extension through attention to word derivation, learners will experience the living character of Latin and its cultural milieu as a link with the ancient world, thereby extending their understanding of the world around them. Latin serves as medium of communication between past eras and our own time. The influence of Latin language and literature and Roman law and architecture on the Mediterranean world, on Europe and on North Africa forms a continuum that also touches modern South African culture and society. Linguistic, literary and research skills developed through attention to the various Assessment Standards at appropriate levels within the ranges set out in the Learning Programme will equip learners with communicative life skills that will also be valuable tools within other learning areas. Certain aspects of modern South African cultures are similar to aspects of the ancient societies and may be more clearly understood by comparison with these. Cross-cultural communication is thereby facilitated. This subject, while clearly falling within the learning field Language, Literacy and Communication, is a cross-field discipline which impinges on a variety of learning areas, such as Human and Social Sciences, Arts and Culture and also Life Orientation. It can also fruitfully be connected to learners' historical awareness of the origins of the material they study under Mathematical literacy, Technology and the Natural Sciences. Latin learning facilitates communication between disciplines. |