Research into How the Study of Latin Improves Reading and Test Scores

 

In the 1970's and 80's, SAT scores were plummeting, students were dropping out of school at astounding rates, and critical reading and writing skills, especially among inner-city students, were at their lowest levels in decades. Some scholars decided to research how the study of Latin affected certain student populations. They investigated whether Latin:

 

(1) improved communication skills and, thereby, enhanced social and economic opportunities and self-image; 

(2) provided understanding of how language works, with particular application to the structure of English; 

(3) enabled students to read and write Latin; and 

(4) provided through the study of Latin, a broader cultural and humanistic perspective. 

 

Results of experimental programs in the Washington, DC, schools demonstrated the efficacy of Latin as a means to improve reading and reading comprehension skills (Mavrogenes, 1977; Sussman, 1978). Reading scores in English were significantly higher for Latin students than either students who did not take a foreign language or those who took another foreign language. In addition, the amount of improvement was greater in the time allotted before testing began than for either of the other two groups, suggesting that Latin helped students more in understanding English than did studying either another foreign language or not studying a foreign language. The students taking Latin were low-level reading students. Mavrogenes (1977) cites Cederstrom who wrote that those children who participated in the 8-month program "climbed from the lowest level of reading ability to the highest level for their grade, equaling the achievements of pupils who had studied French or Spanish for thirty-eight months" (p. 270). 

 

Macro (1981) suggests, "There is no doubt that the study of Latin and/or Greek aides our understanding of English grammar and syntax and hence provides a competence in writing and reading our own language" (p. 73). In a research project on the effects of Latin on both foreign language aptitude and native language skills, Sparks, Ganschow, Fluharty and Little (1995) found that students taking Latin improved in both foreign language aptitude and native language phonological measures over those not taking Latin. 

 

In Worcester, MA, another group of low-level reading students participated in a Latin school program at a seventh-grade level. They showed an increase in reading comprehension well above expectations--a nineteen month increase in a school year (Sussman, 1978). On the California Test of Basic Skills, Los Angeles fifth grade students also, after only three months of Latin, improved three months in reading, while sixth graders improved twice normal expectations. (Mavrogenes, 1987) 

 

The Philadelphia school system implemented a Latin program which showed increases of seven scale points on the California Achievement Test reading portion for the participants as compared to the non-participants (Mavrogenes, 1987). The program consisted of fourth, fifth, and sixth graders who had 15 to 20 minutes of Latin per day with particular stress on vocabulary building through multisensory instruction. The justification was to introduce students to the structure and vocabulary of Latin, including roots and prefixes used in English vocabulary and to introduce the Roman culture and its relationship to present day culture. The Philadelphia program had grown to an enrollment exceeding 14,000 in 1982 (Masciantonio, 1983, p. 369) and was being taught in some instances by trained paraclassicists. However, student scores continued to surpass those of students who had not taken Latin.

 

In another Pennsylvania school system in Erie County, researchers found that the study of Latin increased scores for students in all areas, including "Word Knowledge, Reading, Language, Math Computation, Math Concepts, and Math Problem Solving" (Masciantonio, 1982, p. 377).

 

In another implementation study, New York students studying Latin in fifth and sixth grades showed reading improvement of 3.6 months over those without Latin (1987). 

 

These research findings demonstrate that critical reading skills, reading comprehension, and vocabulary acquisition can be improved, dramatically at times, with the addition of Latin to the curriculum.