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Written by Terry Bird
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 My suite of over 35 Latin programs was originally written for the BBC Model B computer. These programs were used in many UK schools and were sent to many other countries, including Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and the United States of America.
They were given classroom use for many years in Colchester Royal Grammar School in Colchester, Essex, England, where I was Head of Classics, and I have now rewritten them for the Windows pc and considerably extended them. They are very flexible, need little or no introduction and are instantly available to the student from a desktop icon. They are perhaps most successful when used by the individual student out of the classroom. Despite the modern format, we believe in ruthless but rational grammar and vocabulary practice. There are two sets, one for GCSE, and one for AS level, the difference being the vocabulary tested.
The vocabulary programs, arranged by parts of speech, use the OCR Defined Vocabulary Lists. They constitute an excellent aid in acquiring vocabulary systematically. They consist of a multiple choice test of meanings followed by a test requiring the correct Latin word to be typed in, a rigorous and efficient test. These are aimed at GCSE sets (who have done three or four years of Latin) or AS sets (after five or six years) according to the vocabulary.
Another set of programs tests the endings of the seven main Latin noun types, asking for cases and offering excellent reinforcement. They give clear help by pages of grammatical information. These could be used at various stages. For the confident, another program tests all noun endings. |
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Written by Terry Bird
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 I believe I was probably the first to write software for ancient Greek, in 1984. Though very extensively tested, only recently have they been available for the Windows PC, in a very much extended form.
They are very flexible, need little or no introduction and are all instantly (unlike software on the Web) available to the student from a desktop icon, but are just as easily networked in the school environment. Thus they can and should be used for homework and private study as well as class work. The two packages, one for GCSE and one for AS, have 40 or so programs in all, for vocabulary, noun endings and verb endings. The programs have their own Greek character set preloaded, complete with breathings and iota subscript (but not accents), and allow typing in Greek or English as called for in the tests. Answers in Greek are a challenging part of these programs. The vocabulary programs aim to teach the whole of the OCR GCSE or OCR AS list (this second list completely revised), but the alphabetic list is analysed, without omissions, into grammatical categories e.g. contracted verbs, adverbs, adjectives by type, nouns by type – focussed and clear learning which allow the student to tackle logical sections of the list in a way which incidentally reinforces a feel for the kind of word being learnt. They consist of a multiple choice test of meanings (easily repeated) followed, if wanted, by a rigorous test requiring the correct Greek word to be typed in. Mistakes are re-tested. The vocabulary for any test can be the total list or a self-selected part of it, but the aim is complete and systematic coverage. |
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Programs 