The Grammar-Translation Method And the Communicative Approach: Combining Second Language Acquisition Approaches to Teach Lucan and Statius in High School

Abstract

This thesis examines the history of second language pedagogical approaches in order to apply techniques and activities of the Communicative Approach to the method commonly used in Latin classrooms – the Grammar-Translation Approach. Evidence has shown that Comprehensible Input and Output are vital to the communicative competence of students learning second languages, but is lacking in classrooms which employ a strict Grammar-Translation Approach. This thesis combines both of these second language learning systems to create a multi-modal curriculum for use in a high school classroom. In particular, this study culminates in a set of lesson plans to be used with specific passages from Lucan’s Bellum Civile and Statius’ Thebaid that have a clear Vergilian precedent and would therefore be useful and interesting to students who have studied Vergil’s Aeneid in preparation for the Advanced Placement Examination.