"One text he [Millner] resurrected was George Adler’s A Practical Grammar of the Latin Language (1858). This text sought to teach Latin through what he termed “a Serial and Oral method”. The way the text is utilised by Millner is similar to the Audio-Lingual method of the 1960s except explicit grammar instruction is also given. Millner argues that the method may not have been popular at the time because it required a teacher to conduct hours of question and response style drills which gradually introduced grammar and vocabulary.
The book comes in at over 1000 pages long but is comprehensive. Millner spent two years recording the exercises into an audio format where a student can run the drills from an audio player.
The audio course follows the textbook, but Millner adds material and expands on the paradigms: if a student wants to use the course along with the book, pre-reading a chapter quickly before listening would be helpful, as the audio course - especially for the grammatical sections, is not simply a read-aloud of the textbook.
The Dictata follow Adler's text pretty much as it was published, presented in Latin English Latin, the repetitions in Latin only.
Millner suggests the book be worked through whilst being supplemented with a large amount of easy extensive reading passages as well. Millner has also created playlists divided by level so that beginners looking for extensive reading or listening practice might find something from the archived books and get audio as well. Locke and Hamilton's interlinear readers are included in his collections. Like Conlon, he notes that traditional approaches do not contain enough actual reading practice and he advocates massive amounts of reading and listening as well as oral practice drills. "
Latin Teachers Embrace Extensive Reading, Shaune Larder, ERJ, Volume 10, No. 1, pg 4. May 2017
METHODOLOGY
The Adler audio course teaches formal grammar in a separate section of each lesson ( Part A).
Part B uses the 'Sandwich Technique'. This technique of language teaching is efficient, and has more recently been studied and written about by Butzkamm, Wolfgang; Caldwell, John A. W. (2009). The bilingual reform. A paradigm shift in foreign language teaching. Tübingen: Narr Verlag and Dodson, C. J. (1972). Language teaching and the bilingual method (2nd ed.). London: Pitman.
Part C of each lesson is on Latin only.
The Adler audio course is The Latinum Institute's second Latin study course, intended to follow on from the Serial and Oral Course.
This course teaches in-depth grammar, but is not a 'grammar' course - most of your learning takes place through the extensive oral exercises.
Alder is a multi-year course, comprehensive and extremely thorough. While working your way through it you are strongly encouraged to use the bilingual student books listed at the bottom of this page - Aesop, Fenton, and other bilingual audio books, to broaden the range subject matter and to maintain your interest; Adler is very strong in some areas, but lacks in narrative.
These other selected resources, carefully curated, should be used together with Adler. Once you are around half way through Adler you will be ready to use the Latinum intermediate bilinguals, and towards the end the intermediate-plus bilinguals.
NEW ADLER RESOURCE
ON THE SPOT PRENDERGAST STYLE QUIZZING
In September 2020, I commenced the development of a fourth section to each Adler lesson - an oral quiz structured like a Prendergast lesson.
I has always been bothered that asking a student full questions was too steep a learning curve, and that something better was surely possible in terms of developing fluency.
Then I stumbled on Prendergast's method - which follows a direct line from Manesca's Serial and Oral Method,, through Ollendorff, and has many similarities to Manesca's original method.
The idea is that you need to master each lesson, before moving on to the next. How do you know you have done this? You test yourself, using the
3.a ADLER'S LATIN AUDIO COURSE
A STRUCTURED IMMERSION COURSE
ADLER'S PRACTICAL GRAMMAR IN 97 LESSONS
- ADLER IN ZIP FILES (DOWNLOAD CATALOGUE)
Adler's textbook is the Ollendorff Method. If you don't know what this is, have a read of this.
Before you begin Adler, I advise you to study the short Serial and Oral Method Audio Course - especially so if you are new to Latin.
The Adler course took me two years to produce; it is one of my earliest productions, recorded between 2006 and 2008, and so the sound quality is perhaps not as good as my more recent material.
It was originally distributed as part of the Latinum Podcast, which was a victim of the 2008 crash. There are occasional references to the podcast in the audio tracks, and sometimes there are intrusions of sound from outside, and by the end you will know exactly what a City of London police siren and fire engine sounds like ;); a neighbouring apartment building was being demolished during the time I was recording as well, so sometimes you hear a bit of that noise (not too loudly) in the background too.
COMPREHENSIVE
Adler's course is comprehensive - it takes a unique approach, teaching the grammar in pedantic detail in an academic fashion, while teaching the language itself in a more practical intuitive, and immersive manner. The course as produced is a combination of grammar-translation and comprehensible input - immersion.
This audio course is not just an audio recording of the textbook - additional material is provided - however, it follows the order of the textbook reasonably closely. The course is designed to use as an audio-only course, and I did not record it with the intention that the student would be reading along in the textbook.
Studying Adler is like taking two courses at the same time - a formal grammar course, and an immersion style language course. These two run alongside each other; the grammar is not intimately connected with the lessons, in the same way it is in other study methods, but runs almost as a parallel course, intersecting reasonably often with the material in dictata (exercises). Most of the focus of the course is on language immersion.
Adler will take you some time to complete - it is a very long course - without any doubt it is the most comprehensive beginner's Latin course ever written - and the audio course offered by Latinum extends the original printed course even further.
You can (if you access the Zip files) select which parts of a lesson you want to focus on, as these are separated out into sub-units.
REVISION MATERIALS FOR ADLER
Dictata Review in Latin Only Part 1 2h 55m
Dictata Review in Latin Only Part 2 2h 56m
Dictata Review in Latin Only Part 3 3h 32m
MORE ABOUT THE ADLER COURSE
Each Adler Lesson starts with a grammar discussion, 'Part A' .
Then the examples are given in English and Latin, 'Part B' .
They are repeated again in Latin only, 'Part C'.
The first four lessons follow a slightly different structure.
Most chapters have between 60 - 120 minutes of audio.
The pdf textbook is available on Google Books, and can be found listed in the Books section of this website.
Adler's textbook is the Ollendorff Method. If you don't know what this is, have a read of this.
3b. ADLER SUPPLEMENT
THE CURSUS LINGUAE LATINAE
The Cursus Linguae Latinae on You Tube is designed to run alongside and support your studies with Adler.
LATIN TAUGHT USING ONLY LATIN
CURSUS LINGUAE LATINAE PART 1 (98 VIDEOS)
CURSUS LINGUAE LATINAE PART 2 (100 VIDEOS)
CURSUS LINGUAE LATINAE PART 3 (99 VIDEOS)
CURSUS LINGUAE LATINAE PART 4 (36 VIDEOS)
ADLER LESSON 1 38m
Adler Revision Exercises (1-10) as a separate recording.
Adler Lesson One read Steampunk Style on Youtube.
ADLER LESSON 2 38m
ADLER LESSON 3 15m
ADLER LESSON 4 1h 52m
ADLER LESSON 5 57m
ADLER LESSON 6 1h 10m
ADLER LESSON 7 1h 37m
ADLER LESSON 8 57m
ADLER LESSON 9 1h 23m
ADLER LESSON 10 1h 25m
ADLER LESSON 11 56m
ADLER LESSON 12 1h 27m
ADLER LESSON 13 1h 52m
ADLER LESSON 14 1h 25m
ADLER LESSON 15 1h 26m
ADLER LESSON 16 1h 05m
ADLER LESSON 17 1h 08m
ADLER LESSON 18 1h 47m
ADLER LESSON 19 1h 55m
ADLER LESSON 20 1h 28m
ADLER LESSON 21 2h 06
ADLER LESSON 22 1h 44m
ADLER LESSON 23 1h 56m
ADLER LESSON 24 2h 13m
ADLER LESSON 25 1h 43m
ADLER LESSON 26 2h 13m
ADLER LESSON 27 1h 31m
ADLER LESSON 28 57m
ADLER LESSON 29 1h 31m
ADLER LESSON 30 2h 58m
ADLER LESSON 31 1h 49m
ADLER LESSON 32 2h 14m
ADLER LESSON 33 2h 28m
ADLER LESSON 34 1h 54m
ADLER LESSON 35 2h 56m
ADLER LESSON 36 2h 17m
ADLER LESSON 37 1h 55m
ADLER LESSON 38 2h 24m
ADLER LESSON 39 1h 38m
ADLER LESSON 40 1h 52m
ADLER LESSON 41 1h 39m
ADLER LESSON 42 1h 19m
ADLER LESSON 43 1h 12m
ADLER LESSON 44 1h 12m
ADLER LESSON 45 2h 21m
ADLER LESSON 46 1h 34m
ADLER LESSON 47 1h 49m
ADLER LESSON 48 1h 42m
ADLER LESSON 49 1h 51m
ADLER LESSON 50 2h 44m
ADLER LESSON 51 2h 19m
ADLER LESSON 52 2h 08m
ADLER LESSON 53 1h 54m
ADLER LESSON 54 2h 23m
ADLER LESSON 55 1h 42m
ADLER LESSON 56 2h 59m
ADLER LESSON 57 2h 46m
ADLER LESSON 58 2h 48m
ADLER LESSON 59 2h 18m
ADLER LESSON 60 2h 36m
ADLER LESSON 61 2h 19m
ADLER LESSON 62 2h 51m
ADLER LESSON 63 1h 56m
ADLER LESSON 64 2h 43m
ADLER LESSON 65 2h 34m
ADLER LESSON 66 1h 57m
ADLER LESSON 67 3h 31m
ADLER LESSON 68 2h 38m
ADLER LESSON 69 2h 42m
ADLER LESSON 70 2h 54m
ADLER LESSON 71 2h 29m
ADLER LESSON 72 2h 32m
ADLER LESSON 73 2h 34m
ADLER LESSON 74 2h 21m
ADLER LESSON 75 2h 41m
ADLER LESSON 76 2h 23m
ADLER LESSON 77 2h 3m
ADLER LESSON 78 1h 31m
ADLER LESSON 79 1h 32m
ADLER LESSON 80 1h 41m
ADLER LESSON 81 1h 41m
ADLER LESSON 82 2h 14m
ADLER LESSON 83 2h 24m
ADLER LESSON 84 2h 1m
ADLER LESSON 85 2h 13m
ADLER LESSON 86 1h 37m
ADLER LESSON 87 2h 6m
ADLER LESSON 88 2h 24m
ADLER LESSON 89 2h 27m
ADLER LESSON 90 2h 14m
ADLER LESSON 91 2h 13m
ADLER LESSON 92 2h 11m
ADLER LESSON 93 2h 14m
ADLER LESSON 94 2h 5m
ADLER LESSON 95 2h 12m
ADLER LESSON 96 1h 49m
ADLER LESSON 97 (FINAL LESSON) 2h 17m