Since 2018, every Fall I offer an intensive elementary Latin course (LATI 1030: Fundamentals of Latin) at the University of Virginia. This course, which covers the material of two semesters of elementary Latin (1010 and 1020) in one, aims to introduce students to the Latin language through Wheelock’s Latin, a comprehensive beginning textbook that uses a traditional grammar-based approach (Wheelock and LaFleur Reference Wheelock and LaFleur2014). The course extends over 15 weeks, with 50-minute classes meeting four times a week. Enrolment is capped at 18 students, most of whom have previous experience with Latin. The first two times I taught this course, the fast pace of the instruction led me to focus primarily on morphology and syntax, guiltily neglecting vocabulary. The 40 chapters of the textbook provide vocab lists that include around 30 words each. Every week students were required to memorize three of those vocab lists (approximately 100 words), which were the object of specific quizzes. I soon realized that this approach posed two significant issues. First, as students consistently pointed out in their anonymous final evaluations, it made the memorization of vocabulary a mechanical and boring task.Footnote ¹ Second, while in the short term students were able to memorize the assigned lists and do relatively well on tests, they hardly retained this knowledge. Instructors of intermediate Latin courses (myself included) observed that a remarkable number of students were struggling to remember words, even of common use. These concerning circumstances made it clear that a different strategy was needed. Thus, in Fall 2022 (when in-person classes resumed after the coronavirus disease 2019 [Covid-19] pandemic) I started to introduce board games to facilitate learning and retention of Latin vocabulary. This paper aims to discuss the theoretical background and outline the practical application of this teaching strategy.

Studies in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) have long established the important role played by vocabulary in learning and mastering a new language. VanPatten (Reference VanPatten and Van Patten2004), for instance, coins the definition of “lexical preference principle,” which establishes that learners prioritize lexical over grammatical information when they both encode the same meaning, and Schmitt (Reference Schmitt2008) estimates that an adequate reading comprehension of a language requires the control of 8,000 to 9,000 word families. Following in the wake of Carlon (Reference Carlon2013), who has persuasively suggested that Latin pedagogy can greatly benefit from the application of the results of research carried out in the field of SLA, Aguilar García (Reference Aguilar García2024) has shown the advantages of following practices recommended by SLA studies in teaching (and learning) Latin vocabulary. In particular, she adapts to Latin instruction the list of guidelines outlined by Sökmen (Reference Sökmen, Schmitt and McCarthy1997), which includes seven strategies that teachers can use to favour vocabulary acquisition. One of these strategies is to facilitate retention by providing learners with as many encounters as possible through group activities and games. In this paper I expand on this aspect and suggest that board games are especially effective for Latin vocabulary acquisition.

It is a well-established notion that games can play an important role in the learning process. As Pavlou (Reference Pavlou2020) points out, the first formulations of this concept trace back to the work of Plato, particularly the Theaetetus. More recently, modern psychology has reiterated the educational value of games and their impact on the cognitive development of children (see especially Piaget Reference Piaget1962). On the basis of this principle, studies in SLA have developed several teaching strategies that use games and gaming as instruments to facilitate language learning. One of these approaches is gamification, which consists in the application of game mechanics to non-game contexts. In other words, the whole course becomes a game and incorporates game elements such as levels and points (Deterding et al. Reference Deterding, Dixon, Khaled and Nacke2011; Kapp Reference Kapp2012; Dicheva et al. Reference Dicheva, Dichev, Agre and Angelova2015. On gamification of Latin classes, see Gloyn Reference Gloyn2015; Pike Reference Pike2015; Evans Reference Evans2016; Paule Reference Paule2016). Similarly, game-informed learning (GIL) aims to make learning more game-like by employing game principles, such as role-playing and storytelling (Begg et al. Reference Begg, Dewhurst and Macleod2005. On the application of GIL to the study of Ancient Greek, see Pavlou Reference Pavlou2020). Finally, game-based learning (GBL) uses real educational games as pedagogical instruments. Theorists of GBL observe that this methodology encounters learners’ preference and enhances their performance: students find learning through games more interesting than traditional instruction, and their results significantly improve over time (Randel et al. Reference Randel, Morris, Wetzel and Whitehill1992).

Research in GBL mostly focusses on video games and digital games (Prensky Reference Prensky2001; Squire Reference Squire2003; Qian and Clark Reference Qian and Clark2016). Although students seem to enjoy them, Hays (Reference Hays2005) has pointed out that educational video games and digital games pose several issues with respect to time, cost, and pedagogy. First, students are supposed to play these games outside of the classroom in addition to their regular homework, which requires an extra effort on their part. Second, these games can be quite expensive – both to create and to buy. Third, unless video games are designed specifically for a particular educational purpose, they are used merely as external motivators of learning rather than actual educational instruments. Santos (Reference Santos, Spektor, Lockee and Childress2023) has recently observed that all these drawbacks can be avoided by employing board games instead: they can be used during class time under the guidance of the instructor, they are usually inexpensive, and they address and meet specific educational purposes. Following the same line of argumentation, I suggest that board games are especially beneficial for Latin vocabulary acquisition.

Cognitive theorists Weinstein and Mayer (Reference Weinstein, Mayer and Wittrock1986) have argued that new information acquisition follows a four-step process: selection, acquisition, construction, and integration. First, learners focus on the information of interest and transfer it into short-term memory (selection); second, they transfer this information into long-term memory by use and repetition (acquisition); third, they build internal connections between ideas contained in the information (construction); fourth, they build connections between new information and previous knowledge (integration). This theory has significantly influenced research on SLA, especially the work of O’Malley et al. (Reference O’Malley, Uhl Chamot and Walker1987). More specifically, Pavičić Takač (Reference Pavičić Takač2008) applied it to the process of vocabulary acquisition. All these studies inform the way in which I approach the instruction of Latin vocabulary through the use of board games.

In the phase of selection, students work by themselves with the help of the textbook. Each week, they memorize vocab lists from three chapters, for a total of approximately 100 words. As Hulstijn (Reference Hulstijn, Coady and Huckin1997) has shown, while this type of exercise enables learners to memorize vocabulary, it does not facilitate retention. Thus, I use board games to guide students through the next three phases of the learning process: acquisition, construction, and integration. Games are played every other Thursday for 25 minutes. Students are divided into three teams of approximately six people each, so that all can participate. To foster students’ socialization and integration, teams change every time.

Different games prove to be helpful at different stages of the learning process. The first set of games, which includes Memory, Pictionary, and Scrabble, facilitates acquisition through repetition and use. Memory consists in matching pairs of cards. Players take turns flipping two cards face up. If they match, they get a point and take another turn. If they do not match, the cards are flipped back face down and the turn passes to the next player. I adapted this game by creating two different sets of cards: one with words, and one with images representing those words. The three teams are supposed to match each word with its image. The same pedagogical purpose informs the use of Pictionary, in which players take turns drawing words and trying to get their teammates to guess. Each team member picks a card with a word and draws it on the board, while their teammates have 1 minute to guess it. Drawing words on the board is an especially effective strategy for memorization. In my experience, the more bizarre the drawing is, the more likely students are to remember the word. Finally, Scrabble takes this exercise to the next level. Each team receives nine letter tiles with different point values. In turn, they place the tiles on the board horizontally or vertically to form words that intersect with each other. The team that places the tiles with the highest number of point values on the board after four rounds wins. Compared with Memory and Pictionary, Scrabble has two additional benefits: first, not only are students supposed to remember words, but they should also spell them correctly, which for most of them is often challenging; second, since I allow teams to create inflected forms, this game helps review morphology as well, particularly noun and verb endings.

The next set of games, which comprises Blurt, Taboo, Apples to Apples, and Scattergories, helps students complete the last two phases of vocabulary acquisition process, namely construction and integration. The first two games revolve around definitions. Otwinowska (Reference Otwinowska2016) has theorized that learning cognate words is a fundamental step in the path to vocabulary acquisition. Blurt and Taboo develop this linguistic competence by requiring the use of synonyms and antonyms. More specifically, they exercise receptive and productive knowledge (see especially Melka Reference Melka, Schmitt and McCarthy1997), both of which, as Mondria and Wiersma (Reference Mondria, Wiersma, Bogaards and Laufer-Dvorkin2004) have argued, should be systematically trained for successful vocabulary acquisition. In Blurt, the instructor reads a definition, and teams compete to guess the word that corresponds to that definition first. I take all definitions from Forcellini’s (Reference Forcellini1771) monolingual dictionary Totius Latinitatis Lexicon and slightly adapt them if they sound too complex. In Taboo, on the contrary, students create the definitions themselves. In each team, one player draws a card, which includes both the Latin word to guess and a list of words that should not be spoken. The player should come up with a Latin definition of the drawn word that avoids the forbidden terms, and their teammates have 1 minute to guess. In sum, while Blurtaims to strengthen students’ receptive skills, for they must quickly decode a Latin sentence, Taboo trains their productive skills, for they must compose concise and understandable Latin phrases in a limited amount of time.

The following game stimulates another mnemonic technique, namely the contextualization of vocabulary. Meara (Reference Meara2009) has observed that retention proves to be much stronger when words are learned and used in context. Apples to Apples enables students to do so. Players should match red cards with green cards, both of which include one word. Each team receives five green cards. Every round, the judge – in this case the instructor – picks a green card and reads it out loud. The teams choose from their five red cards the one that in their opinion best matches the green card. The judge selects the most fitting or funniest combination. As in Pictionary, the funnier the association is, the more likely students are to remember that word.

The last game we play towards the very end of the semester is Scattergories, which prompts students to place all the words they have memorized into different categories, thus reorganizing their knowledge. Each team receives a piece of paper with five or six categories, chosen by the instructors. Each round, a letter of the alphabet is randomly drawn, and teams are required to come up with a Latin word starting with that letter that fits each category. This game is especially valuable because the instructor can choose different categories on the basis of their necessities. For instance, I tend to use different sets of categories for each round. In the first round I keep things straightforward by choosing commonplace categories, such as names, cities, objects, emotions, etc. In the second round I invite students to reflect on morphology, as the categories are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, and peculiarities. The third and final round focuses on the main literary genres that we engage with throughout the semester: students are required to choose for each category – epic poetry, love poetry, oratory, philosophical prose, and satire – a word that recurs frequently in that specific genre.

Since I introduced board games, the course has remarkably improved. More specifically, I appreciated that the positive impact of GBL on students’ preference and performance registered by Randel et al. (Reference Randel, Morris, Wetzel and Whitehill1992) also applies to board games. In their final evaluations, students regularly point out that games make class more enjoyable and enhance their learning, to such an extent that they would like to play more often.Footnote ² Furthermore, in Spring 2024 the Department of Classics carried out a review of student learning outcomes at the level of intermediate Latin. Students enrolled in all intermediate Latin sections were required to take a diagnostic test consisting of sight translation and related questions. The average score on vocabulary was completely satisfactory, and considerably higher than those on morphology and syntax.

I also had the opportunity to verify that the shortcomings observed by Hays (Reference Hays2005) with respect to the use of educational video games do not affect board games. First and foremost, board games do not merely function as external motivators. In fact, they are an integral part of the learning process. In creating all the tools necessary to adapt board games to Latin instruction (cards, list, etc.), the teacher has complete control over the material and can draw students’ attention to the aspects of the language they wish (or need) to focus on. For instance, they can use board games to review the material they plan to include in quizzes and exams. In addition, board games are low-cost or no-cost, and do not require any effort outside of the classroom. Students play together in class, which is an excellent way not only to break the routine of an intensive course that meets four times a week, but also, and perhaps most importantly, to foster socialization. Recent studies (see especially Lalin et al. Reference Lalin, Ahmed and Haq2024) have demonstrated that the Covid-19 pandemic has had negative effects on students’ mental health, particularly on their social development: having grown accustomed to spending much time alone, they often find it difficult to interact with their peers. Board games are a wonderful opportunity to break the ice and build a connection not only among students, but also between students and instructor. In such a relaxing yet stimulating learning environment students are more inclined to participate and less afraid to make mistakes. This aspect is especially important in an elementary Latin class, for students are likely to continue to study together for at least two more semesters to complete the intermediate Latin sequence and fulfil the language requirement. In this light, this pedagogical approach benefits not only the elementary course itself, but also later intermediate courses, and more broadly, the life of the department, for the sense of community it contributes to create regularly prompts students to join the Classics Club, a group of undergraduate students united in their love for the Classics who celebrate the legacy of the ancient Greeks and Romans through academic and social activities.

Finally, board games provide a welcome opportunity for students to receive some extra credit. In each game, the members of the winning team are awarded one percentage point they can add to their midterm or final exam score. Considering that, for the sake of fairness, teams include different people each time, it is likely that by the end of the semester all students have acquired one or more extra points.

In using board games, I only experienced two minor drawbacks. First, creating the tools necessary to adapt traditional board games to Latin instruction is quite time-consuming for the instructor. However, since most of the tools can be kept and reused in later courses, the burden does not seem excessively heavy. Second, playing board games can take a considerable amount of time, and students often get carried away. Especially in an intensive course, the instructors must be mindful of time: fun activities must be balanced with lectures and readings, and the review of vocabulary must be complemented with that of morphology and syntax. Having tried different timetables and combinations throughout the years, a 25-minute game session every other week has proven to be the most effective scheduling.

In conclusion, I suggest that the use of board games in the Latin classroom significantly contributes to vocabulary acquisition. Although studies in SLA have consistently highlighted the fundamental role played by vocabulary in mastering a foreign language, traditional Latin instruction still tends to focus primarily on morphology and syntax at the expense of vocabulary, with the result that students often struggle to retain the words they are required to memorize. Following in the wake of research on GBL, I submit that introducing board games in the Latin classroom – particularly those designed to develop the different stages of new information acquisition – is an inexpensive and engaging way to facilitate vocabulary learning and retention, as well as to foster students’ socialization and participation. While in this paper I have focussed on the use of board games in an intensive elementary course at the college level, I am confident that the same pedagogical strategy can also work – perhaps even better – in other college courses, such as regular elementary and intermediate courses, as well as in high school, where the slower pace of the instruction may allow not only for more numerous and/or longer game sessions, but also for the introduction of other games.