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Title: Oxford, Latin Course (part 1) by James Morwood, Maurice Balme ISBN: 0-19-521203-7 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: July, 1996 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.75 (24 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Ok, but difficult to understand without help
Comment: I have this book, and it helped me realize that I enjoy Latin. However, the grammar is not explained very well, and I find that I cannot learn a new chapter without guidance from a teacher. Since I live in an area without many Latin teachers, I had difficulty utilizing this book with independent study. However, with a teacher to explain the grammar, this book would be all right. Another problem is that the cartoons at the beginning of each chapter are poorly drawn. Even though this might seem trivial to some, it really does bother me. Personally, I would look for a better text, but this one is OK if you have a teacher.
Rating: 2
Summary: Advice from one teacher to another: DO NOT USE THIS BOOK
Comment: 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: 2
Summary: Incomplete
Comment: 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.
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Title: Oxford Latin Course, Part III by Maurice Balme, James Morwwod, James Morwood ISBN: 0199120927 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: December, 1988 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Oxford Latin Reader by Maurice Balme, James Morwood ISBN: 0195212096 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: July, 1997 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Oxford Latin Course: 1: Parts 1 and 2 by Maurice Balme, James Morwood ISBN: 0198405618 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: May, 1999 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: 501 Latin Verbs: Fully Conjugated in All the Tenses in a New Easy-To-Learn Format Alphabetically Arranged by Richard E. Prior, Joseph Wohlberg ISBN: 0812090500 Publisher: Barrons Educational Series Pub. Date: May, 1995 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
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Title: Cassell's Latin Dictionary : Latin-English, English-Latin by D. P. Simpson ISBN: 0025225804 Publisher: John Wiley & Sons Pub. Date: 01 October, 1977 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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