"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I - I took the one less traveled by, AND that has made all the difference" The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost

DREAMING IN ENGLISH. Are you dreaming in English yet?

WELCOME!!! This is a bit of a challenge for me!!! This blog is intended for all audiences. I hope you enjoy and get the most of it!!!

Here you might find resources to help you navigate the muddy waters of English. The humble aim of this blog is just to keep you in touch with different types of English and different aspects of the English culture , to increase your curiosity about English through many different fields.

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Are you dreaming in English yet? por BE se encuentra bajo una Licencia Creative Commons Atribución-NoComercial-SinDerivadas 3.0 Unported.

sábado, 12 de octubre de 2013

FCE Speaking test. Yes you can!!!!!


Some of you will have to take the FCE this year. This exam is divided in 5 parts where you have to prove thay you speak well and you are an effective communicator, apart from showing your writing, reading and listening skills.
When preparing the speaking part you have to take into account the following:
It is divided in 4 parts:
1 - a simple questionnaire between each candidate and the examiner.
2 - a turn of 1 minute each of the candidates to describe the 2 photos given to them.
3 - dialogue betweeen the candidates to describe together and talk about the pictures given
4 - discussion between the candidates.
On the whole the speaking test lasts 15 minutes.

You have to try to give full answers to the examiner´s questions and prove that you have strategies to make yourself understood and keep the communicative channel open. It is also very important that you listen to the instructions carefully and you know what the topic is and what you are being asked! When you talk to your partner you must show that you are collaborative and that you use strategies, formulae and you know how to negotiate meaning to make yourself understood.

Here you have some samples of a speaking test. 
FCE SPEAKING SAMPLE EXAM
SPEAKING SAMPLE POSCAST

Before that, and as an example that can help you, let´s watch some videos where some candiates are taking the exam. Listen carefully and pay attention to the weak points and strong points in their answers. What do you think of them? Will they pass?















jueves, 10 de octubre de 2013

English is Tough Stuff!!!!!!???????!!!!!!

At this point we all know that English is a difficult language when talking about pronunciation and spelling.
Due to the fact that the language has been subject to lots of external influences ( French language, shifts in pronunciation after spelling became fixed, influence of classical languages, adoption of foreign words ,etc.) what we have nowadays is a big mishmash....

The poem that follows tries to show this and satirize a little bit about the inconsistencies of the language. It is very long so you can focus only on certain parts. 
It is also said that some people would prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud.... 
Do you agree?
Who dares  read it aloud without making any mistakes?

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it’s written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation’s OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation — think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won’t it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It’s a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough –
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!

BUT DON´T PANIC!!!  and don´t give up.
The more you speak and listen to others, the better your English and fluency will be.
 Pay attention to the following slideshare and the use of TONGUE TWISTERS  to improve certain sounds and pronunciation in connected speech. Some of them are a bit difficult but it can be fun trying to say them.
LET´S DO A COMPETITION AND TRY TO READ ALL THESE TONGUE TWISTERS ALOUD WITHOUT MAKING MISTAKES AND PAYING ATTENTION TO CERTAIN PHONEMES WHICH CAN BE DIFFICULT.
WHO VOLUNTEERS TO BE FIRST?????