LATIN FOR ENGLISH? A HIGH SCHOOL CASE STUD

The purpose of this case study was a comparison of English achievement scores obtained by Latin students and by students of modern foreign languages. Standardized test results and teacher grades were used in the study. The test scores were taken from two batteries of the Educational Development Series (EDS) given annually to students in high schools administered by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Philadelphia. These scores represented student achievement in English as measured by Verbal, Reading and Language subtests. The teacher grades in English represented three consecutive semesters.;51 Latin II students comprised the population studied against matched groups of 51 French II and 51 Spanish II students. All were sophomores enrolled in a suburban Catholic co-ed high school. Results were summarized by language groups and their male and female subgroups.;Research covered (a) various reasons for studying the Latin language: aesthetic, cultural, disciplinary, linguistic; (b) Latin enrollment patterns since 1900; (c) the mid-20th century "literacy crisis" in the schools; (d) shifting methodologies in recent Latin instruction; (e) the new trends of elementary school Latin and college computer-assisted vocabulary courses.;Simple comparisons of mean scores revealed that the Latin students did not give evidence of higher achievement in English. Each language group (Latin, French, Spanish) increased its mean score approximately the same amount between the two batteries of standardized testing. Of the subgroups, the greatest improvements were shown by the females studying Latin and the males studying French. Throughout the three semesters of English, each language group and each subgroup showed practically no change. Latin, French and Spanish students' teacher grades in English remained within the 83-to-86 range for all semesters.;Case study results did not support the widely-held thesis that Latin students perform better in English than non-Latin students. However, the study involved a comparatively small number (153) of students. Most were above-average students. The Latin students may or may not have experienced a LATIN FOR ENGLISH stress in their Latin instruction.