Sunday, March 4, 2012

Summer Latin and Old English

Forgive the self-promotion: Please pass along to any and all interested parties and forgive duplications: Hello all, I am pleased to off the two courses listed below this summer online. There are both undergraduate and graduate options. If you are not a Bemidji State University student, directions on admission can be found here: http://www.bemidjistate.edu/academics/distance/admissions/ The ability to use basic software is required, and much will be delivered through D2L, a Blackboard like software that the student will be able to access once enrolled for the class. I’m looking forward to see some of you there! ENGL 3930/5930 Intensive Latin Online Dr. Larry Swain Bemidji State University Course Description: This course is an intensive introduction to Latin, covering in eight weeks a full academic year’s worth of the language. This will require a lot of work and dedication on the part of both instructor and student. By the end, however, the student should be able to read Latin prose with the aid of a grammar and a good dictionary or lexicon. There will be a great deal of memorization. Via our online tools, discussion board, online office hours, recorded lectures, live lectures, exercise sharing and corrections, and Q&A sessions delivered via D2L, power point presentations, and other tools, we will go through the entire text and master basic Latin. The course will require a commitment from the student. A MINIMUM of 2 hours and preferably 4-6 hours a day will need to be spent working on the exercises, in class, interacting with the professor etc. Because delivery is online rather than in a traditional classroom, the need for each individual student to apply him- or herself diligently daily is even more important than in a face-to-face class. Four days a week we will meet virtually to explain the grammar lesson, to do some in class exercises, to correct exercises, and so on, for approximately two hours. The rest of your time will be spent working on exercises, translating sample passages of actual Latin, memorizing the forms. Texts: Intensive Latin by Floyd Moreland and Rita Fleischer Other materials as assigned (I will have advice about students’ dictionaries, additional grammar aids in print and online and so on as well throughout the course). Highly Recommended: English Grammar for Students of Latin: The Study Guide for Those Learning Latin by Norma Goldman and Ladislas Szymanski English 3390/5390: Intensive Old English Summer 2012 Dr. Larry J. Swain Bemidji State University This seminar is intended to accomplish three related objectives: 1) to learn to read Old English and translate texts in Old English with relative ease 2) to have an overview of Anglo-Saxon Literature and 3) to place the language and literature into the historical, cultural, theological, intellectual, and material contexts. That's a tall order. But like those we read who endure heroically, so shall we: we will be able to by semester's end read Old English literature in Old English, both prose and poetry. The approach is simple. This is an intensive course, a full 15 week course offered over less than 8 weeks in Summer delivered over D2L and the Internet. This means that the student will need to keep up and plan well. Missing some elements of the course will prevent successful completion. We will cover approximately two chapters a week, and during the last couple of weeks we will be working exclusively in translating Old English texts. This will require a serious commitment on the part of the student as well as the instructor. Textbooks: Reading Old English: An Introduction by Robert Hasenfratz and Thomas Jambeck A History of Old English Literature by Michael Alexander Recommended: The Anglo-Saxons James Campbell Larry Swain lswain@bemidjistate.edu

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