Page:Latin for beginners (1911).djvu/386

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6
LATIN FOR BEGINNERS

for each member of the class, choosing such words as occur in the lesson of the day. Send the pupils to the board and let each write the meaning of the word falling to him, give its inflection, and construct a sentence which shall contain the word in question. This exercise may be varied by the teacher writing beforehand English instead of Latin words. The pupils will then, first of all, have to write the equivalent Latin.

The rapid recitation of paradigms by successive pupils is helpful; for example, one giving the nominative, another the genitive, and so on. Daily practice with the blank declension and conjugation schemes to be explained later (see pp. 12, 27) is strongly recommended. It all comes to this, — that drill on forms cannot be overdone. Especially after the class has been over all the regular declensions and conjugations this drill should be constant and merciless. And the work is not done until every pupil knows every form.

9. Vocabulary. The learning of words is of no less importance than the learning of forms and cannot be emphasized too much. The special vocabularies should in each case be thoroughly mastered before beginning to read the accompanying exercises. Train pupils from the very outset to give nouns with the genitive and the gender, adjectives with their different gender terminations, and verbs with their principal parts. For example, in reply to the question “What is the word for master?” the pupil should answer, “dominus, dominī, masculine”; to the question “What is the word for good?” the pupil should answer, “bonus, -a, -um”; and to the question “What is the word for advise?” the reply should be “moneō, monēre, monuī, monitus.”

However well the vocabularies are learned, earnest efforts on the part of both pupil and teacher will be found necessary to retain them. Much reading of reviews and at sight will be of assistance. Attention should also be called to the kindred English words that are given in the vocabularies, and the pupil should be encouraged to think of others. In the textbook provision is made for thorough reviews of words at short intervals. The test on these should be rigid. Teachers will be able to