Exercises and Tasks

1. List the differences between the state school that Ryan had attended and the fee paying private school he now attends.

2. What, according to the article, does Ryan find so positive about his new school?

3. Do you think there are any lessons for the state school system in Ryan's experience?

4. Write a summary of the text in 100 words.

Text 12. From “The Schoolmaster”(by Roger Ascham)

1) Lead-in:

a) Latin and Ancient Greek are “dead” languages in that they are no longer actively used. However, until very recently, in Europe at least, they were both widely studied. Discuss either of the following questions:

- In some places Latin and Ancient Greek are still studied. What are
arguments for and against studying them in the twentieth century?

- Why do you think the study of them is in decline?

b) What are the pros and cons of the following methods of learning a foreign language?

- translation

- working through grammar books

- listening to native speakers talking

- practicing phrases from a phrase book

- reading novels with the help of a dictionary

c) Do you think children should be forced or encouraged to do their schoolwork? What should a teacher do if they refuse?

2) Read the following text and do the suggested tasks.

Roger Ascham (1515-1568), an enlightened humanist, was a tutor in Latin and Greek to Elizabeth I. In his book “The Schoolmaster” (1570), Ascham describes his view of the best way to teach children to write good Latin using the letters of Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) as a model.

First, let him [the schoolmaster] teach the child cheerfully and plainly the cause and matter of the letter; then, let him construe it into English so oft, as the child may easily carry away the understanding of it; lastly, parse it over perfectly. This done thus, let the child, by and by, both construe and parse it over again; so that it may appear, that the child doubts in nothing that his master taught him before. After this, the child must take a paper book, and sitting in some place, where no man shall prompt him, by himself, let him translate into English his former lesson. Then showing it to his master, let the master take from him his Latin book, and pausing an hour at the least then let the child translate his own English into Latin again in another paper book. When the child brings it turned into Latin, the master must compare it with Tully’s book, and lay them both together; and where the child doth well, either in choosing or true placing of Tully’s words, let the master praise him, and say, “Here ye do well.” For I assure you, there is no such whetstone to sharpen a good wit, and encourage a will to learning, as is praise.

But if the child misses, either in forgetting a word, or in changing a good with a worse, or misordering the sentence, I would not have the master either frown or chide with him, if the child have done his diligence, and used no truantship therein. For I know by good experience, that a child shall take more profit of two faults gently warned of, than of four things rightly hit: for then the master shall have good occasion to say unto him; “N., Tully would have used such a word, not this: Tully would have placed this word here, not there; would have used this case, this number, this person, this degree, this gender: he would have used this mood, this tense, this simple, rather than this compound; this adverb here, not there: he would have ended the sentence with this verb, not with that noun or participle,” etc.

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