BASIC LATIN WORKSHOP

The Basic Latin Workshop (or Beginners’ Latin) classes are intended for those students who have not studied Latin for A-levels (maturità), and wish to attain a level of proficiency suitable for passing the linguistic competence test which is needed to get a certificate of eligibility and access the BA level FT0435 Latin Language and Literature exam.
The Basic Latin Workshop takes place during the 1st semester for a total of 40 hours under the guidance of a lecturer and a tutor, and ends with a test session. Students successfully passing it will obtain a certificate of eligibility, which allows access to the BA level FT0435 Latin Language and Literature exam.
It is possible to take the linguistic competence test in different sessions during all periods of the academic year, by contacting the lecturer in charge of the Workshop to find out in advance the dates on which they will be held. However, it is highly recommended that you get tested as soon as possible, in order to have time to fill in your gaps.

In order to help students with greater difficulties and gaps, a tutoring system will be activated (led by one or more master's students).

Attendance of classes, active participation in learning activities and individual study will enable students to:
- KNOW the basic morphological structures and syntactic constructs of the Latin language, which allow a first approach to Latin texts;
- UNDERSTAND texts in Latin; the strategies that allow us to translate an ancient text into a modern language;
- ACQUIRE basic Latin vocabulary; critical judgement concerning the best translation choices; ability to evaluate one's work and learning progress; ability to discuss a text in a group; ability to explain clearly the grammar and structure of a language;
- LEARN how to take notes and use online resources; how to manage time and deadlines set each week; how to evaluate the level of difficulty of a text; how to answer grammatical and theoretical questions of increasing difficulty correctly.

Ability to analyze grammatically and logically a text in Italian. Students are required to have a good lexical knowledge level.

The course has as its general content the teaching of the basics of the Latin language: lexicon, morphology and syntax.

Any good grammar manual of the Latin language is fine. In particular, we recommend N. Flocchini, P. Bacci, A. Flocchini, "Latina Arbor", edito da Sansoni/Rizzoli (info: https://www.rizzolieducation.it/catalogo/latina-arbor-0061431/ ).
A vocabulary of the Latin language.
Any further bibliography will be indicated in class.

At the end of the course there will be a final written exam (specimen available on the Moodle page of the course), which will take place over 2 hours. It will consist in:
- the translation of a short text from Latin into Italian; dictionaries will be allowed but not grammars or other books. The text will be a piece of Latin prose about 10 lines in length;
- 3 or 4 short questions on morphology or syntax referring to the short text to be translated.
In order to assess students' progress in learning, during the course the lecturer will provide guided exercises in logical and grammatical analysis as well as in translating.

The course is conceived as highly interactive. Classes will consist in short presentations by the lecturer concerning topics of Latin grammar and syntax, followed by individual or group exercises through which the students will learn how to translate and consolidate their knowledge of the grammar and vocabulary (see above). Homework will be assigned on a weekly basis.

Italian

The test is considered passed with an overall correct translation of the Latin text: that is, the text must be understood in its morphological and syntactic structure. The related questions are intended as a help to the student to direct attention to parts of the text or sections that contain particular difficulties. Despite a good translation, only partially correct or incomplete answers do not compromise eligibility; given a below-satisfactory translation, the correctness of the answers will not be relevant and the test will be considered failed.

written