Languages and language learning from late antiquity to the Carolingian renaissance

This chapter depicts second language learning and conceptualization of the shared properties of languages between the fourth or fifth century CE until the end of the first millennium. Because Christianity influenced the evolution of both topics in that interval, Chapter 3 first looks backward at the linguistic experiences and attitudes of the cultures in which Christianity emerged, then examines the contributions of one influential thinker, Aurelius Augustinus. The chapter closes by looking forward, in that at the end of the first millennium the Greco-Roman grammatical tradition began to be adapted to meet the needs of L2 learners, with those adaptations continuing into the Middle Ages.