AWOL - The Ancient World Online: Imperium Latin

Monday, August 24, 2015

Imperium Latin – free of charge to all

Imperium Latin – free of charge to all
By Stephen Jenkin On August 24, 2015

I have just made Books 1, 2 and 3 of my Imperium Latin course available free of charge to all via TES Resources, in the form of downloadable pdf files. I have done this so that:

more teachers and students will become aware of Imperium Latin, which is already attracting some very positive reactions in a wide variety of schools.

these materials will help schools and individuals whose budgetary pressures are making it difficult to learn and teach Latin, especially those who find it hard to find money to buy books and startup resources.

using Imperium will help with recruitment to Latin and to classical studies generally, especially as it moves so quickly and adds so much humour to the process.

The link for downloading the pdf files can be found here:
https://www.tes.com/member/imperiumlatin

Here you will also find translations of four Greek plays, which have also been posted there to be downloaded free of charge.

All of these files are restricted against copying and pasting but in other ways, their use is governed by the Creative Commons NoDerivatives licensing system, which says that if you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.

Some background for those who are new to Imperium…

I started work on Imperium Latin in 2007 and it is now in use in around 30-40 schools, some in the UK, some in the rest of Europe and a few in the USA. It has had a couple of terrific reviews from the American Classical League and JACT. The course follows the life of the Emperor Hadrian, an intellectual of the first rank, an architect without parallel and a traveller who made many fascinating journeys across the empire. The story becomes a potent mix when you throw in his dubious relationship with Trajan, a wife who hated him, the dark business of Antinous and his strange and obsessional behaviour in later life.

Imperium Latin was written to be delivered via screens, using data projectors or smartboards. Early on, I hit on a box-based approach, which has proved very successful in classes. No single exercise in the course ever spills over beyond one page, and no page has more than 10 boxes in any exercise.

The linguistic sequence was designed to rely on the present tense for as long as possible, a technique which has been found successful by many modern language teachers. The hardest clauses and constructions are kept back until later, so the exercises remain accessible. Imperium is rigorous and includes exercises of English into Latin in every chapter, though there is often an overlap between the Latin to English and English to Latin, which makes it possible to lift some of the answers, as well as a full set of MP3 exercises, which can equip either student or teacher to prepare for a class.

When there is something to laugh about, learning often becomes more motivational and it is a central pillar of the course that the material shouldn’t take itself too seriously. Books 1 and 2 are filled with my own jokes, whereas in Book 3, the focus shifts onto Latin witticisms, through a collection of more than 50 poems of Martial.

In addition to the books, the Imperium Word Tools App is a unique system which supports the Latin to English exercises. It draws on the models of open-ended systems such as Perseus and Nodictionaries but is carefully matched to this course and the needs of its students. It runs on Mac, PC, Linux, Android and iOS devices, so it is a complete solution for use at home as well as in the classroom.

All the printed books can be bought via Amazon (simply enter Imperium Latin), and the Apps can be bought from the App Store, Google Play, or the project’s website. It should be noted that for schools wanting to implement the course, the Site Support Pack should be regarded as a basic essential. This includes printable pdf files of all the materials, the Apps for Mac and PC, lots of teaching notes and details, MP3 files, correct answers, tests, unseens, and lots more besides.

In addition to three main coursebooks the Imperium Latin Grammar and Syntax Guide has been designed for use by any student of Latin. There is also a second range of resources called Imperium Latin Unseens, designed for more advanced students. This includes a book, MP3 files and the Imperium Unseen Tools App, as well as a Site Support Pack.