Insegnare le lingue antiche, insegnare le lingue moderne. Convergenze e illusioni

Teaching Latin and Greek is, at the beginning of the 21st century, a radically new experience. It is not true that in the 19th or early 20th centuries people were studying Classics for the sake of knowledge "per se", but because studying Classical languages was socially important (see e.g. Stray's researches for the UK). Methodology is important, but the basic issue is motivation. Once discussed the issue of motivation, teaching Latin and Greek can learn a lot from the experience of the teaching of modern languages.