Cheating or learning? An investigation into Year 8 students' perceptions of the Cambridge Latin Course Explorer Tool and its role in both classroom teaching and online learning

Abstract

This article investigates the different uses of the Cambridge Latin Course Explorer Tool in the classroom, and students' perceptions of this, through a case study of a Year 8 class in an all-girls' comprehensive school. Student perceptions of this tool were a particular focus of the research, exploring its enhancement of students' enjoyment of the subject, its impact on vocabulary retention, and what they considered to be a reduced difficulty of translation. However, it also brought to light students' misgivings about the tool, including a sense of guilt in some pupils, who were of the opinion that their use of the Explorer Tool could be considered as ‘cheating'. Others, meanwhile, felt that it detracted from the ‘process' of translating to the point that they believed it actively hindered their learning.

Keywords

• Latin
• pedagogy
• electronic dictionary
• online learning