Historia y tradición en la enseñanza y aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras en Europa (VI): Edad Moderna - La Reforma Humanística de la lengua latina y de su enseñanza.

Abstract

The fifteenth century is the starting point of a period of change and of the discovery of, among others, new geographical, social, ideological, and cultural worlds. It is the beginning of the Early Modern Period for Western Europe, and of a period full of novelties of the utmost importance for the history of foreign language teaching, essentially as a consequence of the loss of the linguistic–educational monopoly sustained hitherto by the Latin language.

Within the field of foreign language teaching the first great innovation is to be found in the rejection and the shifting away from medieval Latin and a concern about the classical knowledge and the elegant Latin language of the Golden Age. The second innovation is a general change in attitude towards languages, both the classical ones and the new modern national languages, which leads to a reformation in the educational system and to a significative change in the teaching of these languages within this system.

The current article deals with the Latin language learning process, which, more specifically, leads us to the following two aspects: on the one hand, humanistic Latin and grammar, on the other, the books and textbooks used in Latin classes.