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Feature
A Little Latin and ... a Lot of English
by Rick M. Newton and Evangeline Newton
Consider this: In the fifth grade alone, our students will meet
about 10,000 new words as they read. Sixty percent of those words will have recognizable
Greek, Latin, or Anglo-Saxon word parts (Nagy et al., 1989). About 4,000 of the
10,000 words will be derivatives of familiar words (compound words and words with
prefixes and suffixes). And 1,300 more of those words will be inflections of familiar
words (for example, laugh, laughter).
"But, Miss Cassell, we don't want to translate Julius Caesar's
Gallic Wars on Fridays!" Thus began the 1964 revolution of the ninth-grade
Latin class of Hanley Junior High School in University City, Missouri, a suburb
of St. Louis. Back then in that school district, all ninth graders were required
to take a foreign language. Our choices were French, German, Russian, Spanish, and--yes--Latin.
Mandatory foreign language study in University City public schools actually began
in the eighth grade. In the ninth grade we were allowed to continue with the same
language or start over with a new one. Most of us picked the language our friends
picked so that we could use our time in foreign language class to socialize. (What
else would one expect from a 14-year-old?) If our friends had changed since the
eighth grade, we might pick the new language of our new friends. With my stagnant
social life, I stuck with the same friends and stayed with Latin. The die was cast.
All the foreign language classes met at the same time: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday,
2:00-3:00 in the afternoon. Every Monday and Wednesday afternoon, the entire school
was abuzz, acting out dialogues in mock restaurants and railroad stations, conjugating
verbs, making flash cards, and memorizing vocabulary. But on Friday, the modern
language students--i.e., every language class except
Latin--did "fun" activities. Students in Spanish were making piñatas, the French
students were building miniature guillotines and creating powdered wigs, the German
students were preparing for a mock Oktoberfest, and the handful of Russian students
(it was the Sputnik era) were playing Theodore Bikel folk records with balalaika
music.
But Miss Elaine Cassell, our brand-new Latin teacher with an MA from Stanford University,
was intent on making us complete her favorite selections from Julius Caesar by the
end of the year so that she could send us to high school fully prepared for Cicero.
While we were being chided for misspelling the name of the barbarian Vercingetorix,
the smell of hot tacos came wafting down the hall from the Spanish class. Even Miss
Cassell would comment on how she wouldn't mind having one! It took the better part
of the fall semester for us to wear her down with our conspiracy of Friday whining,
and to this day, I am not sure if our conspiratorial complaining did the trick or
the smell of those tacos. If the latter, thank you, O Mexico!
But Miss Cassell believed that doing something "fun," like building a Roman chariot,
would take too much time from our real studies. Wearing togas to school was out
of the question in the 1960s: No shorts, no jeans, no T-shirts, no exposed shoulders
were allowed in the building! But our teacher finally did compromise. She made every
Friday "Roots Day." Her idea of fun--if you can believe it--was to lay Julius Caesar
aside for one hour, cast our declensions and conjugations to the wind, and just
learn English vocabulary from the Latin roots.
It didn't sound like much fun to us, but it did sound
like a lot less work, and so we feigned enthusiasm. Instead of having to remember
that the preposition per always governs the accusative
case or that sub takes the ablative, on Fridays we had
only to know that per meant "through," as in words like
permeate, percolate, perforate, and percussion.
We were responsible only for knowing that sub means
"under," as in submarine, subconscious,
and submerge.
So every Friday, "just for fun," Miss Cassell passed out 3 x 5 index cards and scissors
so that we could make our own flash cards for Latin prefixes, suffixes, and bases.
Wow--using scissors in Latin class--what a novelty! We were allowed to use class
time to memorize our cards (what a relief--any other day of the week, this would
have been a homework assignment) and then compete with one another, sometimes in
teams and sometimes individually, to see who could generate the greatest number
of English words from a single Latin root.
Even Miss Cassell got into the game. She created columns of words, following each
word with as many blanks as the Latin roots it contained. We had to "slash" each
word to identify the Latin roots and then deduce the definition.
Quadruped had two blanks after it, so we whipped out our flash cards
for quadru and ped and filled
in the blanks with four and foot.
Dissect had two blanks: We filled in
cut and apart. Compose
had two blanks: We filled in put and
together. We earned points that we could claim for extra credit toward
our final grade for the course. This was serious fun!
After a month or so of these Fridays, we Latin students finally
could compete with our modern language peers. We had no guillotines to
show off, but we did have an impressive stack of flash cards and some awesome vocabulary!
Just like Gus Portokalis, the father in My Big Fat Greek Wedding,
we would go around the school building and say to teachers and classmates, "Give
me a word, any word, and I'll tell you it's from Latin!" Of course, we made few
new friends with such sophomoric behavior (we were only freshmen!), but within our
own peer group of Latin-loving nerds, we thought we had invented sliced bread.
By the end of the year, like Pavlovian dogs, we had become highly trained etymological
dynamos. After all, there are only around 30 Latin prefixes. You don't even need
to be a Latin student to learn them. These prefixes abound throughout our English
vocabulary. For every Latin base we learned, we could generate at least 5--and often
15 or 20--English words. From greg (meaning "flock,
herd") we formed congregation, aggregate,
gregarious, egregious, segregate, and desegregate.
And these were not just "dictionary words." These words appeared over and over in
every course we took throughout high school and into college: words like
perturb, revoke, providential,
impediment, and implement.
The same words showed up on the ACTs and SATs. I still remember encountering vivisect on the SAT. I had never seen it before, but I
was able to hazard an informed guess that it had something to do with "cutting"
something "alive."
"Divide and conquer" was one of the slogans we learned when we read Julius Caesar
in the ninth grade. But Miss Cassell taught us to divide and conquer vocabulary
by showing us how to search for meaningful "semantic units" within words that may
at first sight intimidate or baffle us. Indeed, some 80 percent of the words students
find "difficult" in literature, in textbooks, and on standardized tests derive from
Latin or Greek. Just having such a tool at my disposal--the habit of dividing a
word into its component parts as a way of decoding its meaning--has proved to be
one of the easiest and yet most powerful learning aids in my life of literacy.
What Can We Learn from Roots Day?
In Miss Cassell's "Roots" class, Rick became a lifelong lover of words. For the
last 30 years, he has been teaching them to students at Kent State University. Since
most of our students will not take Latin and few of us can boast Miss Cassell's
impressive command of English morphology, what can we learn from this story? We
believe there are three implications for vocabulary instruction of adolescents.
- We need to teach students how to divide and
conquer word parts, especially those of Latin and Greek origin.
Rick's journey began when Miss Cassell demonstrated a strategy that showed him how
to divide and conquer word parts to unlock their Latin-based word meanings. Ohio's
English Language Arts Academic Content Standards underscore the importance of this
linguistic principle. Grade-level indicators from the first through twelfth grade
call for the study of prefixes, suffixes, roots, and word origins. In fact, from
the seventh grade on, the indicators specifically designate the study of Greek,
Latin, and Anglo-Saxon roots.
- We need to provide regular opportunities for
students to practice and discover words on their own and in the company of others.
After teaching the strategy, Miss Cassell created an authentic--and social--purpose
for applying it. Rick and his classmates enjoyed competing with each other to discover
new words. They boasted about their unique skill. In a surprisingly short time,
they grew into independent and confident word sleuths. Research tells us that for
students to master a word, they need to meet it multiple times in conversation or
through reading and writing, and Roots Day provided such opportunities (Blachowicz
& Fisher, 2002).
- We need to share our own love of words and
invite students to share theirs.
Ultimately, Roots Day was about how a teacher used her passion for Latin to ignite
her students' curiosity about English. Quite naturally, by engaging with her students
through "serious fun"--and even competing against them--Miss Cassell modeled the
innate pleasure of exploring and using words. And like her, these students also
became lifelong lovers of words.
How Do We Begin?
Use these guidelines and resources to get started. It will be easier than you think!
- Tuck "word talk" into all lessons.
Begin by sharing your own love of words. Each of us has favorite texts that we turn
to because the words move us to laughter or tears. Read these aloud to your students,
and talk about the power of words. Invite your students to do so as well. Learning
new words means learning new concepts--or new labels for familiar concepts. If students
will be tackling a new or difficult concept in language arts or the content areas,
begin by reading them a picture book or story that addresses the topic. For example,
consider reading Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster
(Frasier, 2000) to initiate discussion of the complex spelling and multiple meanings
of English words.
- Encourage students to become word sleuths.
Most students come to us with some word analysis strategies. Reinforce --and expand--the
strategies students have already learned. They know how to use
context clues, although they may not apply the skill efficiently. They
know how to use a dictionary, but they may not know
the enormous variety of electronic and print dictionaries now available. They know
the concept of synonym and antonym,
but they may not know how to use a thesaurus. (Some
of the electronic ones available are really fun to use!) Explicit practice with
all these strategies for unlocking word meanings will help students learn to use
them automatically.
- Teach the word analysis strategy of divide
and conquer. Most of our students already know that affixes and roots
are word parts. What they may not know is that by separating and analyzing each
of those parts they can figure out a word's meaning or build new words on their
own. Check out this link for a quick lesson in "divide and conquer."
What are the most common Latin prefixes and bases? Open the accompanying PDF files
for starter lists (Latin prefixes PDF and Latin bases PDF). Two other good resources are Janet
Allen's Words, Words, Words (1999, pp. 121-123) and
Blachowicz and Fisher's Teaching Vocabulary in All Classrooms
(2002, p. 196). Unless the district's course of study identifies specific affixes
and roots (or bases), no need to worry about tying specific parts directly into
the curriculum. If concerned that you may lack an in-depth understanding of those
meanings yourself, rest assured that there are plenty of easily available resources
to help. The web also has lots of ready-made activities. Try this Flip-a-Chip strategy from Read-Write-Think to show students
how to build words from affixes and bases. For more teaching support, check out
the resources listed at the end of this article.
- Provide direct instruction for key vocabulary.
The National Reading Panel (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development,
2000) found that some direct instruction is useful. There is, however, no core list
of vocabulary words students can expect to meet in a particular grade. New vocabulary
usually comes from the texts students read, and these vary from district to district.
Teachers are often left to identify key words for direct instruction before reading.
While preteaching key words through direct instruction is worthwhile, research tells
us that only about 8 to 10 new words each week can be learned effectively through
direct instruction (Stahl & Fairbanks, 1986). Because of this, select those
words carefully. Choose words that represent a significant concept,
are needed for a specific reading assignment, and are
likely to be encountered in other texts (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2002). Recognize
that students will not master those words unless they have opportunities to use
them in multiple oral and print contexts. For more quick classroom tips on how to
choose and teach words, read this Scholastic professional development tutorial on
increasing vocabulary: "Teaching Vocabulary with Francie
Alexander," a professional development tutorial on increasing vocabulary.
- Just as every story has words, every word
has a story. Did you know that the word school
actually comes to us from the Latin word for "leisure"? Or that a computer cursor and a race course both
come from the Latin word for the verb "to run"? Students might find those nuggets
of information interesting. Whet their appetites by sharing interesting word histories,
and then show students how to explore the origin of lots of words themselves. Post
a list of websites or print resources (see below). Encourage students to share what
they discover with the class.
- Make time for "word play." Remember
that words themselves are just plain interesting and our ultimate goal is to create
lifelong word lovers. Giving students time to do crossword puzzles and word scrambles
or to create riddles and tongue twisters is not only fun--it's good instruction.
Make time for students to play and explore word games on their own or with others.
There are countless easily accessible word activities available for students to
play on the Internet. Check the resources below. You may want to begin with
Bingo Lingo.
- Promote wide reading on a variety of topics.
Research tells us that we learn more new words "incidentally," when they appear
in our reading or listening, than we do through direct instruction (Lehr, Osborn,
& Hiebert, n.d.). The more students read, the better. Establish different purposes
for reading--including pure pleasure--and urge students to choose texts at various
levels of difficulty. Even a simple text can generate conversation that will expand
students' conceptual knowledge and increase their overall word awareness.
Final Thoughts. Rick observes: What Miss Cassell
instilled in us, through Friday Roots Day fun and games, was not just vocabulary
that would help us for the rest of our lives when we read literature and textbooks,
or took the SATs, ACTs, and GREs. She instilled curiosity about words--where they
came from and how they could be used. She instilled a love of words that continues
long after we have left her classroom. Perhaps just as importantly, she instilled
in us the confidence that when confronted by a new and difficult word, we often
have the resources within ourselves to grasp its meaning. We have these resources,
that is, if we know just "a little Latin."
ORC Resources
Bingo Lingo: A Root Word Matching Game Resource Type: Content Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 4–7 Professional Commentary: This vocabulary game helps students to understand common Greek and Latin roots. Using an engaging and interactive approach, this game teaches knowledge about word origins and reinforces the connections among related words....
Resource Type: Content Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: The Lex Files provide access to Latin-Greek prefixes, suffixes, and root words. Lists of quotations, legal terms, medical words, prescription terms, religious expressions, and various abbreviations from Latin and Greek classical and modern translations are also available at the web site.... Projects: AdLIT
Vocabulary: The Key to Improving Comprehension Resource Type: Instructional Resource -- Promising Practice Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 1–8 Professional Commentary: This resource describes two activities for helping students to learn unfamiliar words so they can comprehend texts more fully. The mini-lessons, designed for primary and intermediate classrooms, encourage students to make connections between what they know about words and what they need to know in order to understand texts better.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: AdLIT, Standards First
Resource Type: Professional Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 3–9 Professional Commentary: Of the many compelling reasons for providing students with instruction to build vocabulary, none is more important than the contribution of vocabulary knowledge to reading comprehension. The focus of this professional resource is on vocabulary instruction as a component of reading comprehension.... Career Fields: General Career Skills Projects: AdLIT, Standards First
Resource Type: Content Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 4–12 Professional Commentary: Maintained by Merriam-Webster, this student-centered website offers free access to an online dictionary, word games, and interactive word puzzles. Features on the site include a free subscripton to the "Daily Buzzword" and "Build-Your-Own-Dictionary." (ncl) Career Fields: Agricultural & Environmental Systems, Arts & Communication, Business & Administrative Services, Construction Technologies, Education & Training, Engineering & Science Technologies, Finance, Government & Public Administration, Health Science, Hospitality & Tourism, Human Services, Information Technology, Law & Public Safety, Manufacturing Technologies, Marketing, Transportation Systems, General Career Skills Projects: AdLIT, Standards First
Resource Type: Content Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 6–12 Professional Commentary: This resource is a worldwide online community of users who share a love for words, wordplay, language, and literature. An electronic publication, A Word A Day (AWAD) provides a vocabulary word, its definition, pronunciation information with audio clip, etymology, usage example, quotation, and other interesting tidbits about words to subscribers every day.... Career Fields: Arts & Communication, Education & Training, General Career Skills Projects: AdLIT, Standards First
Resource Type: Content Resource Discipline: English Language Arts Ohio Standards Alignment: Grades 4–12 Professional Commentary: A free online dictionary resource offering access to a searchable database of words from the Oxford English Dictionary, word games, and other support materials for vocabulary development and writing. Users will also find resources for spelling, composition, grammar and usage, and foreign language.... Career Fields: Agricultural & Environmental Systems, Education & Training, General Career Skills Projects: AdLIT, OhioWINS, Standards First
Great Classroom-Based Texts
These have practical ideas you can implement quickly!
Allen, J. (1999). Words, words, words: Teaching vocabulary in grades
4-12. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. A fourth-grade Ohio teacher shares dozens
of wonderful and easy-to-implement strategies ready for Xeroxing!
Brand, M. (2004). Word savvy: Integrated vocabulary, spelling,
& word study, Grades 3-6. Portland, ME: Stenhouse. A fifth-grade
Ohio teacher describes how he weaves word study throughout the day. Provides many
specific examples and advice. Very readable.
Carris, J. D. (1994). Success with words. Princeton,
NJ: Peterson's Guides. This workbook has literally hundreds of root words and "context"
activities based on vocabulary needed for success on the SAT and similar standardized
tests. The activities are fun to do, and the explanations are very clear. For older
students.
Handy Resources
American Heritage Dictionaries (Eds.). (2004). 100 words every
high school freshman should know. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Funk, W. (1998). Word origins: An exploration and history of words
and language. New York: Wings Books. (Originally published in 1950.)
Arranged thematically, this book gives the history and derivation of hundreds of
familiar and not-so-familiar words!
Garg, A., & Garg, S. (2003). A word a day: A romp through some
of the most unusual and intriguing words in English. Hoboken, NJ: John
Wiley & Sons.
For Further Reading: From Theory to Practice
Nagy, W. E. (1988). Teaching vocabulary to improve reading comprehension.
Urbana, IL: NCTE/IRA. Short, readable classic in vocabulary instruction. Explains
the "why" and "how to" of effective instruction for middle school and beyond.
Stahl, S. A. (1999). From reading research to practice: Vocabulary
development. Brookline, MA: Brookline Books. Concise theoretical overview
of vocabulary development, with a simple, easy-to-implement instructional framework
based on current research.
Websites for Classroom Activities and Word Play
EdHelper.com
This site has lots more than vocabulary! Check out the table of contents and click
on "Vocabulary." In addition to spelling and vocabulary lessons, you will find many
ready-to-implement activities with Greek and Latin roots that students will enjoy
doing!
Vocabulary
University
Full of puzzles and other activities based on Greek and Latin roots. The puzzles
change regularly, so students can visit the site frequently without getting bored!
MindFun.com
Calls itself the "web's best spot for online trivia games, word puzzles and quizzes!"
Students will find word scrambles, webs, crossword puzzles--even Boggle. Lots of
word trivia too.
Rick M. Newton is emeritus professor of Greek and Latin at Kent State University,
where he was chair of the Modern and Classical Languages Department for 13 years.
More than 15,000 KSU students have taken the course English Words from Classical
Elements, which Rick created.
Evangeline Newton is professor of literacy education and director of the Center
for Literacy at the University of Akron. A former editor of
The Ohio Reading Teacher, Evangeline is currently chair of ORC's Reading
Review Board.
In collaboration with Nancy Padak and Tim Rasinski, the Newtons are developing a
vocabulary workbook series for students from grades 3 through 8. The series, called
Classic Vocabulary, will be grounded in evidence-based word learning strategies
and will involve students in daily activities to expand their vocabularies through
engaging instruction and practice. The expected publication date is spring 2006.
Return to top
References
Allen, J. (1999). Words, words, words: Teaching vocabulary
in grades 4-12. Portland, ME: Stenhouse.
Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing
words to life. New York: Guilford Press.
Blachowicz, C., & Fisher, P. J. (2002). Teaching vocabulary
in all classrooms (2nd ed). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice
Hall.
Frasier, D. (2000). Miss Alaineus: A vocabulary disaster.
San Diego, CA: Harcourt.
Lehr, F., Osborn, J., & Hiebert, E. H. (n.d.) A focus
on vocabulary. Retrieved March 13, 2005. http://www.prel.org/products/re_/ES0419.htm.
Nagy, W. E., Anderson, R. C., Schommer, M., Scott, J. A., & Stallman, A. (1989).
Morphological families in the internal lexicon. Reading
Research Quarterly, 24, 262-282.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000).
Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based
assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications
for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC:
U.S. Government Printing Office.
Stahl, S,. & Fairbanks, M. M. (1986). The effects of vocabulary instruction:
A model-based meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research,
56, 72-110.
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