Lingua Angelica I
by Cheryl Lowe
Reviewed by Martha Robinson
Purchase details: Lingua Angelica I by Cheryl Lowe. Student book, teacher book, song book, and CD, $39.95. Published by Memoria Press. Please support HomeschoolChristian.com by buying this program from our Christian Book Distributors link or Amazon affiliate link.
Lingua Angelica I has given my level of Latin enthusiasm a real shot in the arm! Consisting of a student book, a teacher book, a song book, and a CD, Lingua Angelica I, a "Christian Latin Reading Course", is an outstanding supplement to whatever Latin program you use. Mrs. Lowe suggests that Lingua Angelica I offers the benefits of an immersion method of learning a foreign language. Lingua Angelica I, while based on the simple idea of learning Latin songs, offers great depth of study in both vocabulary and grammar.
Lingua Angelica I is intended to be used to study twelve songs and four prayers over three years during Latina Christiana I (after lesson 20), Latina Christiana II, and the first year of Henle Latin. The remaining twelve songs on the CD is studied in Lingua Angelica II which was not reviewed. All but one of the songs, "Gaudeamus Igitur", have Christian themes.
The set contains:
- CD -- Twenty-four songs and four prayers are included on the CD. The songs, sung a capella style by six choir members, are positively beautiful.
- Song book -- The song book includes the words and score for each song and a "music history" section in which a brief background of each song is provided.
- Student book -- The student workbook includes exercises for twelve songs and four prayers. Longer songs are broken into exercises by verse. An exercise consists of translating each line as a whole and then drilling each word by writing its different forms and parsing (saying specifically how it is used in the sentence). A thirteen page "grammar chart" section in the back of the student book provides some basic information to help in translation and parsing. Workbook pages are reproducible.
- Teacher Manual -- The teacher manual thoroughly explains the strategy for using Lingua Angelica I and offers suggestions for teaching and testing. Brief teaching suggestions are offered for each song and prayer, broken down by the year they should be taught. The answer key reproduces the student book with answers filled in. The same "grammar chart" section provided in the student book is in the back of the teacher manual.
Recommendation: Lingua Angelica I truly brings Latin to life. If you are teaching Latin in your home, you CANNOT go wrong with this program. Children learn easily by singing and these songs are so pleasant that you may find yourself listening to them frequently. Even if you just listen to the CD and review the words together, you will be WAY ahead.
HomeschoolChristian.com resources related to this review:
Latin Curricula Comparison Chart
Interview with Mrs. Lowe
Latin Centered Curriculum review
Review of Latina Christiana
Henle Latin
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