Historia y tradición en la enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras en Europa (IV): Edad Media - La enseñanza del latín.

Abstract

The current article, a sequel in the series which started in the thirteenth number of Babel and continued uninterruptedly in the two following numbers, is concerned with the following great historical moment in our long story on the history and tradition of foreign language teaching in Europe: that of the Middle Ages in Western Christiandom, which is characterised by the languages of religion and sciences, and the first testimonies in the history of the teaching of modern languages as foreign ones.

In more specific terms, in this context there are three aspects that must be taken into account: the teaching of Latin, the vernacular languages and the other written, sacred and sapiential languages. The first of these constitute the theme to be analysed in the pages of this chapter. The initial pages suppose a general introduction of the most relevant circumstances that determined the situation of the Latin language and its teaching within the period. After this introduction, attention will be paid to the specific process of Latin learnig within the Christian instruction system, and three basic cases will be dealt with: the Irish clergy, the Carolingian Renaissance and Scholastics.