Using illustrations and modifications, these texts can be understood through context and by reference to words already learned.Ĭhapters consist of an illustrated and annotated reading followed by a concise and formal discussion of the grammar used in the chapter, as well as several Pēnsa, or exercises, that require the student to apply these grammatical concepts to selections from the chapter's reading. The course consists of two parts: Familia Rōmāna and Rōma Aeterna along with a series of classic texts like Julius Caesar's Commentāriī dē Bellō Gallicō. The student is assumed to know the Latin alphabet and be familiar with a Romance language or English. A dictionary is not necessary in this system because the textbooks are composed entirely in Latin, they can be used by speakers of many languages. Unusual for a Latin course, pronunciation and understanding, rather than translation, are stressed.

Grammar is gradually made more complex until the student is reading unadapted Latin texts. Words are always introduced in a context that reveals the meaning behind them, or they are explained in the margins of the text with images, Latin synonyms or antonyms, or short Latin definitions. In this method, the student, who needs no previous knowledge of Latin, begins with simple sentences, such as Rōma in Italiā est (' Rome is in Italy'). Ørberg's Lingua Latīna Per Sē Illūstrāta is based on the method of natural approach or contextual induction. In his retirement, Ørberg directed the Domus Latīna publishing house and gave lectures in Europe and the United States on the natural method. The book has been revised a few times, including in 19 the title was also changed, to Lingua Latina per sē illūstrāta. Besides the author's name, there are no non-Latin words in the book. While there he created a new course in Latin: Lingua Latīna secundum nātūrae ratiōnem explicāta published in 1955.

From 1953 to 1961, Ørberg worked in the Naturmetodens Sproginstitut, an institute where languages are taught according to the ' natural method' of learning.

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