Rethinking the teaching of Latin in the inclusive school

Abstract

Abstract This paper aims at renewing the teaching of Latin applying the advances of the contemporary comparative linguistic research to the production and experimentation of materials for the teaching of (classical) languages. In addition, it addresses a particular aspect to which the Italian school is currently more and more sensitive, namely the inclusion of students with dyslexia (Italian law 170/2010). The method encourages students to formulate expectations on the contents of the Latin texts they read, by brainstorming activities, spotting keywords, and proposing collaborative hypotheses to the peer group. Furthermore, it proposes an inductive approach to the morphological analysis of the texts. Finally, it is very important to recognize the positive role of the cross-linguistic comparative approach to the texts, mostly (but not only) based on the reflection on the thematic structure of the verbs which is universal and only varies in its syntactic realization; on the recognition of phrases; on the graphic representation (first guided, then independent) of the syntactic structure of phrases and sentences.