Conversational Latin for Oral Proficiency (Third edition) is a beefy, but easy-to-use supplement for Latin teachers and older Latin students.. Each of the twenty-five chapters tackles a particular subject matter; providing Latin and English conversations on three different difficulty levels and an extensive list of topical vocabulary and related phrases (some chapters also include suggested classroom activities and additional notes).
The chapters are designed so that they need not be done in a particular order so that readers can jump to a topic of particular interest and gain some depth in their Latin studies by practicing pronunciation, memorizing conversational phrases, creating Latin-language skits or just "messing around" with the language a bit. The book includes plenty of ancient terms as well as words for modern ideas and inventions, so you won't have any trouble discussing everything from weather to the Internet during Latin class.
There are some really neat extras as well. The "Days, Weeks, Months and Years" segment gives some fascinating details on the calendar and time-telling used by the Romans. The "Grammar" chapter, which is particularly extensive, gives plenty of content for teachers wishing to conduct their entire Latin classes in Latin. There are also conversational pieces which would be great for memory work (with a question and answer format), for example: "What is a verb?" and "Give examples of a relative pronoun." (This segment, even if studied only in English, makes excellent review work as well.)
The topics covered are as follows: "Greetings:, "Family", "House and Furniture", "Daily Activities", "Sports and Other Leisure Activities", "The Human Body" (like a normal dictionary, proper names for body parts are included) , "Health and Physical Fitness", "Food and Drink", "Days, Weeks, Months, Years", "Expressions of Time", "Useful Colloquial Expressions", "Clothing and Jewelry", "School", "Buying and Selling", "The Weather", "Animals", "Emotions and Qualities", "Trades and Professions", "The City and Public Buildings", "Government", "War and Peace", "Law and Criminal Justice", "Geography and Topography", "Transportation" and "Grammar". Appendices include "Yes and No in Latin", "Colors", "Numbers", "Proverbs and Sayings", "Computer Terms" and a 137 page General Vocabulary arranged English to Latin.
