O Tempora - The Change in Year 12 Latin Unseen Translation

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Aran

O Tempora - The Change in Year 12 Latin Unseen Translation examines how Victorian Year 12 Latin unseen translation standards have evolved over the past fifty years. It places the subject within broader curriculum debates where Latin’s “dead language” status has faced skepticism, while policy and media narratives shape perceptions of language value. Using Year 12 matriculation and the unseen translation component of the final VCE examination, the study evaluates whether expectations have changed over time and how the change can be characterized.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages16

Reading Time40 min

AccessFree to download

Background to the Study

Curricular revival and media skepticism

Language prioritisation in policy

Shift from language to culture

Rationale for investigating Victorian Latin

O Tempora…The Change in Year 12 Latin Unseen Translation ALICE KEMP D espite its status as a “dead language”, Latin is enjoying a gentle renaissance in secondary schools in Victoria. Enrolments at year 12 have grown steadily over the last twenty years: in 1995 there were 69 students enrolled compared with 202 in 2015. According to the vice-president of the Modern Language Teachers Association of NSW, Latin is ‘now starting to have a comeback’.1 VCE Latin, as most prospective students would be well aware, holds a prized place amongst the highest-scaled year 12 subjects; this scaling is the carrot often dangled to entice reluctant students to include it in their final year of secondary schooling. Students who are brave enough to embark on the Classical language in Year 12 are rewarded with a sizeable up-scale which may permit them entry to the tertiary course of their choice; in 2015, a Latin (raw) study score of 30 was scaled up to 46.2 Such a significant increase inevitably opens the subject to a standards-based attack: is Latin hard enough to warrant its scaling advantage? Is it harder than other subjects? Obviously, different subjects require diverse skills and capabilities and it would be presumptuous to embark on a comparison between subjects in terms of difficulty. It is feasible, however, to consider the change in standards within a discipline; informal conversations with practitioners of other subjects suggests that the overall trend is one of reduction, where the expectations for year 12 students have been substantially diminished. It was decided to investigate Victorian Latin over the last 50 years, with a view to ascertaining whether the subject had in fact changed overtime and what was the nature of this change. Year 12 (matriculation) was selected as the point for comparison with the focus for the document study on the unseen translation component of the final examination. 1 cited in MacGibbon (2011), 2. 2 VTAC (2015), 2. Background to the Study Secondary school Latin in particular has received little sustained academic attention in Australia. Broadly speaking, the media has reacted to the renewed interest with scepticism, questioning the place of an ancient and unspoken language in the modern curriculum. The 2014 government pledge to fund secondary school classical language courses for inclusion in the National Curriculum provoked one Queensland newspaper to devote an entire front page spread to this ‘controversial revival’, under the headline ‘Absurdus Maximus; Feds Fund Revival of Latin 1500 Years After Fall of Roman Empire’. The accompanying article cites educational critics who declare it‘patently absurd’ to treat Latin as other living languages.3 Such vitriol is by no means new: the fact that a large proportion of the academic literature on Latin in Australia is apologetic in nature attests to the fact that Latin has received considerable criticism from educational critics and the general public. Educators are well aware that the LOTE (as a collective) are frequently questioned as to their value and their place is far less secure in the modern curriculum than other ‘core’ (i.e., English, Maths, Science) or more vocational (i.e. Accounting) disciplines. Yet perhaps less widely realized is the notion that there exists a hierarchy within the LOTE themselves, where languages of business potential (Mandarin, Japanese, Indonesian) are more highly valued than the European languages (French, Italian, German) which in turn are ranked above the ancient, unspoken languages (Latin, Ancient Greek, Sanskrit). The national prioritisation of languages is explicitly enshrined in public policy: dating back to the 1994 COAG report, the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program (NALSSP) has made extensive federal outlays in order to prioritise four Asian languages, with renewed pledges (2008-2011) to continue the prioritisation of 3 Chilcott (2014) . O Tempora…The Change in Year 12 Latin

FAQs

What is the document’s main purpose?

To investigate Victorian Latin over the last 50 years and determine whether Year 12 unseen translation standards have changed over time, and what that change looks like.

Which part of the Year 12 assessment is used for comparison?

The unseen translation component of the Year 12 (matriculation) final examination is selected as the focus for the document study.

Why has Latin’s renewed interest been controversial?

The document explains that media and educational critics have questioned the place of an ancient, “unspoken” language in the modern curriculum, often calling the revival “absurd”.

Sep 20, 2026

Uploaded by Aran