PURPOSE OF THE STUDY OF LATIN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE - to be read in conjunction with the PURPOSE as set out in LANGUAGE SUBJECT STATEMENT AND LEARNING PROGRAMME FOR LATIN

In view of the linguistic and cultural diversity of South Africa, its citizens must be able to communicate across language barriers and foster cultural and linguistic respect and understanding. The country's linguistic diversity is acknowledged and valued in the constitutional recognition of eleven official languages and the Language in Education Policy of additive multilingualism. Learners are obliged to include at least two official languages as Fundamental subjects and further languages may be taken as Core and/or Elective subjects. Latin as foreign language is one of these subjects. Comparison of any other language structure with that of Latin enables abstract thought about language, thereby fostering additive multilingualism. Simultaneous use of Latin and another language as medium of learning, including translation from the one to the other, furthers the multilingual communicative ideal. The skills and attitudes described in the National Curriculum Statement for Latin are subsumed in all that follows. These form the basis for life-long learning. The Further Education and Training curriculum enables all learners to meet many of the requirements of the Critical and Developmental Outcomes, including the following objectives: Broaden and deepen language competencies developed in the General Education and Training band, including the abstract language skills required for academic learning across the curriculum, and the aesthetic appreciation and enjoyment of texts and visual materials, so that learners are able to listen, speak, read/view and write/present with confidence. Latin enhances learners' command also of their home language and the language of learning and teaching. It works as an intensifier of learners' linguistic skills and provides an excellent framework for understanding grammatical structure in any other language. Language curricula prepare learners for the challenges they will face as South Africans and as members of the global community. Acquaintance with an ancient culture and ideals in some ways similar to, and in other ways far removed from, their own world, fosters this cosmopolitan ideal. The Latin literary and linguistic study and the cultural spin-off involved in the contextual use of Latin, involves contact with the culture of ancient Rome. Latin studies include the cultural, mythological and literary influences of ancient Greece, which strongly informed Roman culture and are discernible in many aspects of modern literature and society. The nature of artefacts from the ancient world (graffiti, inscriptions, monuments, coins, wall-paintings) also broadens the range of types of communication encountered. In brief, the gains implicit in the simultaneous (alternative and complementary) use in the classroom of two languages (Latin together with the learners' home language or their language of learning) are the following:

The development of skills in Latin is always accompanied by the development of parallel and complementary skills in the home language and/or the language of learning; The process fosters multilingualism and cultural sensitivity in an exceptional way; The process lends itself to the achievement of all the outcomes described in the LANGUAGE SUBJECT STATEMENT AND LEARNING PROGRAMME FOR LATIN but especially to the achievement of those outcomes with a social, cultural or historical secondary objective; The critical distance offered by the study of an ancient language and clearly distinct world view implies that: The range of different types of texts broadens exponentially Objectivity, intercultural understanding and intercultural sensitivity are enhanced (through the emotional detachment implicit in this learning situation)

Scope of study of Latin as a foreign language