A Companion to Familia Romana

A synthesis of language teaching research and teaching experience, Jeanne Marie Neumann's A Companion to 'Familia Romana': Second Edition is an extremely valuable ancillary for teachers and students who use the volume Familia Romana: Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata by Hans orberg. The Companion cleverly reworks and is presumably intended to replace (at least in English-speaking territories) the original three volumes written by orberg: Latina Disco , Grammatica Latina and Latin-English Vocabulary I . Following the approach already adopted by orberg, Neumann recommends undertaking the study of the Companion only after careful reading of the corresponding units in Familia Romana and the Latin Grammar sections therein. On this approach, the deepening of a student's metalinguistic understanding is postponed until (although not in reality subordinated to) the acquisition of morphology, syntax, and vocabulary, since the grammatical explanations function as an additional aid to understanding already simultaneously encountered (and thus partially assimilated) rules in the course of undertaking the Latin readings. Each chapter is accompanied by a major cultural and historical excursus (Studia Romana), absent in the first edition of the Companion and always connected with the content of individual chapters. The presence of a list of words with English translation at the end of each section, absent in the original Latin volume, proves successful and effective because it allows one to determine with certainty not only the primary meaning of a word but also the exact meaning with which it is used in various contexts. The big innovation in this second edition is the inclusion of expository units on Roman civilization. These sections, always written in a lively and engaging style, significantly enrich the orberg course, making it better serve the needs of those students of the Latin language who also wish to gain familiarity with Roman culture and civilization. The new edition of the Companion will certainly help rekindle the debate not only on the direct teaching of the Latin language but also on the need for renewal in the teaching of ancient languages. Indeed, thanks to its structure and rigor, Neumann's work does everything necessary to adapt to present-day needs a text which, although it was conceived over fifty years ago, is still a very solid and valuable tool for starting the reading of classics. -- Giuseppe Marcellino, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitat Munchen Familia Romana and A Companion to Familia Romana came as a complete revelation. I'd heard they were unique, but they are literally nothing less than a work of genius. They would completely revolutionize the classroom, and I would urge all teachers of first-year Latin at universities and all high school teachers to seriously consider adopting this radical approach to learning Latin. The companion volume provides all the traditional exposure you would want, but the main volume shows every prospect of genuinely internalizing Latin in the learner's brain as a living language, calling on a whole set of language-acquisition skills and instincts normally neglected in the teaching of a dead language. Mind-blowing. Jack Mitchell, Department of Classics, Dalhousie University For anyone committed to learning or teaching active Latin, Hans H. orberg's Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata is a singularly rich approach. But inductive language acquisition in a traditional school setting offers a set of challenges in response to which Jeanne M. Neumann's Lingua Latina: A Companion to Familia Romana has become the sine qua non. The Companion is designed as an aid for those learning Latin at the university levels, independent learners, and instructors at all levels. This Second Edition adds minor changes to the text of the first edition and new, multi-faceted culture sections in each chapter, called Studia Romana. As a bridge between the inductive method and deductive rules and paradigms, this new edition of the Companion has become a singular essential resource. Much more than a meticulously crafted and effective complement to the orberg method and texts, the Companion offers the most essential element of natural Latin language acquisition: lucid explanations of the unambiguous beauty of Latin's grammar and style. Cynthia White, University of Arizona, in The Classical Outlook