The Case Study of the Simulacrum in Latin Teaching

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of an exercise in the Latin language used as part of assessment in Latin courses at the Universidad de Costa Rica. The exercise is an ungraded test administered one week before the graded assessment for the course, so it is a formative evaluation that works as a practice tool for the summative evaluation. The main objective is to present the Simulacrum as a learning exercise for the process of learning Latin in a university environment. A second objective concerns executive-function skills and the anxiety associated with these kinds of assessments. Neurodivergent students also play an important role in this discussion, since traditional ways of evaluating knowledge may not take account of differences in information processing. Methodologically, I chose a case-study approach to present this tool. The framework considers learning by doing, neurodidactics for neurodiversity, and inclusive instructional design. Finally, the results are evaluated using the SMART methodology and the SWOT method.