vice verba application
Having an issue with your verb forms in Latin? There’s an app for that. Vice Verba helps students of Latin master verb forms. This bonus melior optimus* application was co-created by UWinnipeg’s Classics Associate Professor and Chair of Classics, Dr. Pauline Ripat, and her colleague, Dr. Christina Vester, Associate Professor at Waterloo.
Vice Verba is an educational game for iPhone and iPad users focused on improving Latin students’ ability to identify and produce verb forms. Difficulty identifying verb forms has been one of the major impediments to students’ ability to progress successfully in Latin at undergraduate levels.
“As a Classics professor I found the students had difficulty with retention of memorized verb forms in Latin,” explained Ripat. “We are hoping that this game will encourage students to practice and improve these fundamental skills.”
Players parse verbs and produce forms to earn togas. When enough togas are collected, an ‘imago’ of a famous dead Roman is unlocked. Players can customize the game by choosing tenses, voices, and moods, and the presence or absence of macrons. The game increases in difficulty as the player’s skills improve. To download Vice Verba visit the Apple Store.
This Vice Verba was inspired by the ‘Hoplite Challenge Cup’, a non-digital game created by Drs. Hardy Hansen and Gerald Quinn for the intensive Greek program at City University New York.
Ripat acknowledges Dr. Hansen for his encouragement and advice at the earliest stages of development as well as notes generous financial support from The University of Winnipeg’s Research Office and the President’s office.
*bonus melior optimus is great in Latin
