Edward (Ed) Launders-Grieve, who recently graduated from Jesus with a Double First in Classics, has been awarded a prestigious Gibbs Prize for coming first in both Latin and Greek out of all students at Oxford who started both languages from scratch when they joined the university.

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Gibbs Prizes are awarded on the results of coursework and public examinations. Ed was awarded the prize for best overall performance by a Course II student in the Final Honour School of Literae Humaniores. Key to his success was that he learned both ancient languages using the Active Language Method, a pedagogy developed at Jesus in which grammar and texts are learnt by speaking the languages during classes. The method is especially effective for beginners, as proved by Ed’s success.

Read more about Active Latin and Greek at Jesus.

Ed discovered Classics quite by chance. He explains, “It was during the pandemic, and I was at home starting to think about university but unsure what to study; I couldn’t choose between my A-level subjects which were English Literature, Music, History and French. I was out for a walk one day, and bumped into my neighbour’s daughter, who had just graduated from Oxford with a degree in Classics. She began telling me about the ancient world, and offered me the chance to have a socially-distanced weekly chat about Classics. I was amazed at the breadth of the subject – language, literature, philosophy and music – and decided that’s what I wanted to study.”

Ed joined College in 2022, and learnt active Latin from day one of Week 1. “At the welcome drinks in 0th Week, Melinda Letts (Tutor in Greek and Latin), Armand D’Angour (Fellow and Tutor in Classics) and Krasi Ivanov (Tutor in Latin) told us that we’d be using Active Latin, and I didn’t know what it was” he says. “We arrived at 9am on the first day of the first week for our first tutorial, and our tutor welcomed and talked to us only in Latin. It was a baptism of fire but you soon pick it up, and actually do learn to converse in a way you would never get through writing.”

Fast forward three years, and Ed now fully endorses the active language method. “There’s no better way to start if you’re new to the ancient languages, and learning in a small tutorial group rather than a faculty classroom means you have a really personal learning experience.”     

Armand says, “Ed’s Double First and Gibbs Prize are fantastic achievements, especially considering that he started both Latin and Greek from scratch. He’s the first student to graduate having been taught both languages via the Active Method, and some credit for his success must go to the tutorial team consisting of Melinda, Krasi, and Ivan Parga, all of whom taught him (for some classes at least) in the original languages.”

Ed agrees; “The teaching staff are brilliant tutors. Having good relationships with them gave me a softer launch into something new, and as a result it never felt daunting or frustrating. I’m hugely grateful for all their support, and will to stay in touch – as well as keeping up with my spoken Latin and Greek of course!”