This Rough Magic

This Rough Magic is a book by Mary Stewart, which my FCE students and I read this month. It is set in the island of Corfu in Greece, and it is a love story between the main character Lucy and a musician called Max.

Love story, you said? Don´t worry I assure you it´s not boring. There is a lot of action in the book as Lucy finds out something illegal is going on in the island and somebody tries to kill her!

I´m not going to tell you the end, though (I know everyone hates spoilers). You´ll have to find it out yourself.

My opinion of the book? In a word: Riveting !

Some (British) English words/phrases

I have the healthy habit of checking the BBC web page every now and then (http://www.bbc.co.uk). Here there is a list of some expressions I have found in the blogs/articles:

"I wouldn´t pay a fiver for it"  - British English informal  (A fiver being 5 pounds, saying you don´t think something is good enough)

"to take a dim view of something" - (Meaning to disaprove of something. Click to see phrase in context in a BBC article on The Green Lady by Vladimir Tretchikoff)

Mind-mapping

According to the creator of mind maps, mr Tony Buzan, our brain works through associations. When we listen to/ or see the word SUPER, for instance, we immediately think of super man, super market, super model or super inflation.

What we associate words with will depend largely on our life experiences, personality and field of work/education. That is to say that when listening to the word "super", a comics fan is likely to think of super heroes, a housewife of super markets, and an economist of super inflation.

The theory of mind maps also states that our brains are incredibly visual, so mind maps use words, pictures, lines of different sizes, and colours.

Mind maps in the English classroom

I have been using mind maps in my classes for a while now, and I have seen wonderful results. After reading a text I encourage my students to record the new vocabulary using this technique, and I have seen that it is a fun and memorable activity for them.

Here are some examples of mind maps produced by some of my students.

Interested in learning about mind-mapping? Try these links:

http://www.thinkbuzan.com

http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/mind_maps



Making the best of the Internet

There are many ways in which you can use the Internet to improve your level of English. Let me just show you the tip of the iceberg by introducing you to some of my favourite webpages.

#1

Top of the list is Flo-joe. What a wonderful webpage full of free on-line FCE exercises. There you can put your 5 skills to the test (reading, writing, listening, speaking and use of English). Give it a go.


#2
Have you heard about TED ? This is a webpage where you can see videos of famous writers, scientists, politicians, etc giving speeches on a wide variety of topics: literature, art, personal develpment...

This is one of my favourite videos, author and activist Isabel Allende discusses women, creativity, the definition of feminism and of course one of her latest books "Tales of Passion".



#3
The social networks. Try Twitter, Facebook and Skype. Start making English speaking friends and interacting with them. Whenever you learn a new expression record it in a notebook and make sure you use it as much as possible.

#4
What about Youtube?
There are some really fun videos and you can learn a lot from them too. Practise your listening skills and learn some vocabulary at the same time.

Tips for the FCE exam

# 1
I am square-eyed, which means I watch a lot of television. So here it is my number one tip for passing the FCE exam with an A, watch as much telly as you can !

For real! I can tell by experience that watching a couple of English programmes a day is a wonderful way to learn new vocabulary, especially phrasal verbs and idiomatic expressions. Plus you get to practise your listening skills.

You don´t necessarily have to watch BBC or Discovery channel, feel free to choose whatever channel you like, but it is better if you watch a wide variety of programmes, that way you can learn a little bit about everything (music, history, medicine, geography and so on...)

#2

You do have to read a bit, you see. It is important to read at least one book a month to practise your reading skills and learn some vocabulary. Again, you don´t necessarily have to go for the classics (though personally I love "Pride and Prejudice", "Frankenstein", "Alice in Wonderland"...) you can read all kind of things. Try more modern literature if you like, or magazines and blogs, if they are your cup of tea.

#3

Interact. Start going out more often. Try to get you some English speaking friends or somebody who is planning to take the FCE too. The best way to practise your speaking is of course speaking! Video conferences are a good alternative too. Why don´t you use skype? Not only will you make new friends but you will learn something from them too.