The Cult of the One True Textbook Has to Stop

Where does Hans Ørberg's 1950's textbook Lingua Latina Per Se Illustrata: Familia Romana stand in comparison to modern Second Language Acquisition research? Why do some think that it is based on Comprehensible Input when it was written before the theory existed? What are the chances that a small group of authors writing in the mid-20th century would happen upon the best language learning strategy independently of modern science? Was the Direct Method, the language teaching movement which had inspired LLPSI, always right about everything? What was adopted and what was lost in the transition between the Direct Method and the writing of LLPSI? What are the consequences of raising Ørberg on a pedestal while echo-chambers on the internet amplify his praise and suppress disagreement?

The living Latin movement needs to not just take credit for the successes of LLPSI, but for the failures as well. I tell the untold story of students who had been neglected by their teacher at least in part because of the internet culture that so confidently proclaimed LLPSI to be everyone's silver bullet of language learning.

LLPSI is not magic: but that does not mean it is bad. It can be good when it is used as part of an overall strategy to learn the language through CI. Responsible teachers should not be looking for a perfect role-model in the past to base their teaching on, but to humbly scrutinise their own pedagogy and be open to changing towards more evidence-based practices as the SLA research reveals more about how we learn languages.

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For a full transcript of this video essay with links and references, see my blog post on the topic: https://foundinantiquity.com/2022/09/...

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0:00 Introduction
1:25 1) A moderately tall person in a land of dwarves
6:19 2) Survivorship bias and internet echo chambers
11:24 3) Some casualties of the LLPSI cult
15:18 4) The Direct Method
34:13 5) From the Direct Method to the Nature Method: What was adapted, and what was lost?
48:00 6) Does LLPSI beat everything else?
55:03 7) Final thoughts