Rating: 
Summary: Advice from one teacher to another: DO NOT USE THIS BOOK
Review: I would have to agree that reviews written by students and autodidacts are pretty much useless. Having taught Latin from about a dozen textbooks, I have this much to say to Latin teachers who are looking for a good textbook: do NOT, for mercy's sake, use the Oxford series until they finally publish complementary materials. The stories and arrangement in the Oxford series aren't all that bad, but all their merits are more than nullified by the mere fact that complementary materials virtually do not exist. I'm starting at a new school where the previous teacher used Oxford, so I'm stuck with it for at least one more year. What that means is I'll have to spend at least 10 hours a week writing worksheets, exercises, and stories for tests (and if you've ever taught Latin you would know how hard it is to write or revise stories for tests--you'd have to make sure they know all the vocab, all the grammar.) All my work to make up for what the lazy Oxford editors didn't do. The drills at the back of the book and on the Internet Workbook are simply foolish. No self-respecting Latin teacher would find them useful. I personally prefer Ecce Romani series because they come with workbooks and testbooks...which make my job oh so much easier.The Oxford Series also makes a sorry attempt at 'balancing' the traditional (grammar) approach and the new (living language) approach; the result is it fails miserably at both. If you prefer the traditional, use Jenny. If you prefer the extreme of the new, use Cambridge. If you prefer one that does the best job at both, use Ecce Romani.
Somebody was wondering who drew all the terrible pictures: the editor's wife, who obviously has no skills whatsoever, did. I'd chalk that one up to one of Oxford's good points, though. Since the book is so bad, the teacher might as well spend their class time making fun of the drawings instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Vital adjuncts to the course
Review: The excellent Oxford First Latin Course is not enough for self study without the Teacher's Book series, which offers essential commentary and keys to exercises.
Rating:
Summary: Don't use this book for high school students.
Review: The layout of this book was horrible! The images could have been done a whole lot better as well. I enjoyed reading the stories about Quintus and such, but I felt this book could have gone deeper in explaining the grammar and history. Also, the lessons, which are short, are in the back of the book instead of with the chapter. I wish my teacher had Wheelock's lessons instead.
Rating: 
Summary: Male et Bene
Review: This book is rather bipolar in its usefullness. It is nice (though often annoying) that it does make things easy on the user by using easy stories. "Quintus goes to the pub" will allow you to concentrate on the language and not the complex meaning of the story. Furthermore, it allows for a sort of "catch up" phase in that every four chapters or so there is a chapter in which nothing new is introduced. A time to really concentrate on what you are suppose to have learned. These are its good points. This will sound trivial but still bothers me a year after having finished this book...the art is wretched. Who drew these pictures? People often are drawn without arms or legs and switch shades of colors between images that are directly beside on another. And never (NEVER) look into the background. Whoever did draw these books not only had little skill in art, but had no knowledge of Roman life. Secondly, the book has this "tell you later" aspect. They allow little things to pop up here and ther and then explain them in the next chapter. Sure, some will say that this is a good way to slowly move into the grammer, but it does you no good to see a word and have no idea whatsoever to do with it. Beyond this, often when they do explain things they do so in a small context. "A" is used for 1. And you shall go on like that for some time before they tell you "A" is used also for 2 & 4, which up until this point we have been using "B." Later, we learn that "B" is the exact same but they cared not to let us in on that little fact. Of course, maybe they don't want to push too much on us, which is a fair argument. But, then, they should put annotations to further chapters so that if we want to we may look further ahead to gain, no understanding, but context. The book also, has its fair share of mistakes, which you will may not realize and which then may really hinder your learning. So, the book has its good and bad points. Overall I think it is a good book to learn with, but it definately could be revised and some of these problems fixed.
Rating:
Summary: Male et Bene
Review: This book is rather bipolar in its usefullness. It is nice (though often annoying) that it does make things easy on the user by using easy stories. "Quintus goes to the pub" will allow you to concentrate on the language and not the complex meaning of the story. Furthermore, it allows for a sort of "catch up" phase in that every four chapters or so there is a chapter in which nothing new is introduced. A time to really concentrate on what you are suppose to have learned. These are its good points. This will sound trivial but still bothers me a year after having finished this book...the art is wretched. Who drew these pictures? People often are drawn without arms or legs and switch shades of colors between images that are directly beside on another. And never (NEVER) look into the background. Whoever did draw these books not only had little skill in art, but had no knowledge of Roman life. Secondly, the book has this "tell you later" aspect. They allow little things to pop up here and ther and then explain them in the next chapter. Sure, some will say that this is a good way to slowly move into the grammer, but it does you no good to see a word and have no idea whatsoever to do with it. Beyond this, often when they do explain things they do so in a small context. "A" is used for 1. And you shall go on like that for some time before they tell you "A" is used also for 2 & 4, which up until this point we have been using "B." Later, we learn that "B" is the exact same but they cared not to let us in on that little fact. Of course, maybe they don't want to push too much on us, which is a fair argument. But, then, they should put annotations to further chapters so that if we want to we may look further ahead to gain, no understanding, but context. The book also, has its fair share of mistakes, which you will may not realize and which then may really hinder your learning. So, the book has its good and bad points. Overall I think it is a good book to learn with, but it definately could be revised and some of these problems fixed.
Rating:
Summary: The only way to learn Latin!
Review: This is one of the best courses for the self-taught Latin learner that I have ever found. Easy to follow, it uses the "learn by doing" method of reading and learning from context, rather than bogging the reader down in intimidating Latin grammar. Grammar is introduced based on readings, and is broken up into short lessons so that it isn't too much to absorb at once. Plus, there's a real sense of accomplishment from reading Roman myths and about the wanderings of Aeneas in Latin! I recommend this course!
Rating:
Summary: Incomplete
Review: This review is actually for all three volumes as a complete system. I'm writing it because I don't see any reviews from teachers - they all seem to be from students or self-learners (bless their hearts). To be fair, I haven't actually used this series in class yet, but am about to because it is what the school has been using and I thought I would give it a try. I just spent the afternoon looking through it and I am a little worried (and embarrassed, having studied at Oxford). The other user complaints about the presentation (Grammar at the back, etc.) and artwork seem to me to pale in comparison to the fact that many non-trivial aspects of Latin grammar seem to be entirely missing (a couple, in fact, are actually incorrect). Also, since the perfect system for verbs (active and passive) aren't introduced until very late, students seem to learn many verbs beforehand, and then never learn the third and fourth principal parts. (Where is fero's "latus" given, for example? Have I missed it?) Some examples of grammar not included (based on a quick comparison with Moreland and Fleischer) seem to be: Causal and concessive uses of participles
Substantive use of adjectives
Relative clauses of characteristic
Subjunctive subordinate clauses in indirect discourse
Negative clauses of fearing with "ut"
Use of the passive periphrastic as a future passive participle
The Supine (although it's promised for Vol. III in Vol. II)
Many uses of various cases: dative of the possesor(!); double dative; ablative of agent (!); ablative of cause; genitive of description; genitive of characteristic; partitive genitive; objective and subjective genitives (the authors appear to have a dislike of the genitive); Greek accusative; adverbial accusative
The plural forms of "vis"
Clauses of proviso
Clauses of doubting
Historical infinitive Anyway, that's my first impression, for what it's worth.
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: this textbook is as good as it gets. unusually attractive, generously illustrated, yet at the same time highly challenging, the oxford course is a major success at textbook writing. after studying this course one gets a comprehensive view of roman history and culture, in addition to a knowledge of the language. and the narrative about horace at the center of this course reads like a novel.
Rating:
Summary: addendum to the "seductive" review
Review: To use this course for independent study, one really needs the corresponding series of teachers guides (Oxford Latin Course: Teacher's Book (part one, two, etc.) for comments, explanations, keys to exercises.
Rating:
Summary: Great for even young Latin students
Review: We are using the Oxford series for homeschooling. My eight-year-old twins enjoy the stories and have easily learned to read and translate Latin with the series. They particularly like the focus on Horace as a child and the historical lessons that are attached. As a teacher I found it easy to use, but a background in language and a working knowledge of Latin helps if you are going to use it to teach younger students.
|
