Wednesday Morning Blog

 Hi Fau Bloggers! The aim of English 4 is to reach the English Level of B1 on the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. This is the most complete and exhaustive study of language competence ever mapped out. It was launched in 2001 in connection to various European languages but has it origins in a document on the English Language published in 1975. This is what a B1 learner can do in terms of range - how big a vocabulary you how much grammar have, accuracy - in terms of grammatical control,  fluency - how naturally you speak, interaction - the ability to engage in conversation, coherence - whether you effectively communicate your message. In 2 weeks we have our final written and oral tests.  The oral test is a short conversation in pairs.  The written test is based on activities found in a well known B1 test.  Today I'd like you to carry out practice activities in preparation for your written test, specifically the listening and reading sections: https://www.exameng

I guess one of the interesting people I follow on social media is Janelle Monae. She is a singer/actress from Kansas. I first heard of her in 2010 when she released the album The ArchAndroid. It was a really amazing concept album that mixed various musical styles (hip-hop/rap/rock/soul/jazz/classical/pop). I found her to be the most interesting artist of her generaion because she was doing something different and extremely creative. She was very open about here influences which ranged from "The Godfather of Soul" James Brown to Pop/Rock Icon Bowie  and on thru Debussy and Science-Fiction author Philp K.Dick  After The ArchAndroid I followed her career with interest because she what she does goes beyond music. Actually, her first album is still my favourite but I think she is an interesting celebrity who is trying to push the barriers and create change, especially towards things related to racism, feminism and the LGBT community.  As both her music and acting awards demonstrat

Hi Blog Heads, Sorry for posting a little late:) This week I'd like you to write about something you enjoy doing outside. For me there are three things that come to mind: football, cycling and hiking (otherwise know as trekking). However, as football involves other people, and cycling requires a bike, I'll talk about hiking. I think I developed my love of hiking when I was a young child. My family lived in the countryside in Wales until I was 6 years old and from a very young age we would do a lot of walking. My parents never had a car and I never passed my driving test until I was 53 years old so, walking has always come naturally to me. The walks I remember from my childhood are those we did in North Wales where there are lots of forests and hills that are public footpaths. In fact Britain has an excellent network of footpaths and trails that are well looked after and pass through hundreds of miles of beautiful countryside (You can see some of them here:https://www.nationaltr

Hi there FAU Bloggers: As a continuation of last week's Chile-themed post, today I'd like you to write about a Chilean building or a landmark that you like. I've opted for a landmark I visited a few years ago, "the Marble Caves" on General Carrera Lake near Coyhaique. I went with my wife and her mum to celebrate my wife's birthday. Up until that point, the furthest South I'd travelled was Chiloe and I was really eager to see what the landscape was like. Well, it was amazing, the area surrounding Coyhaique is beautiful and, for my taste, the most beautiful place of all was the Marble Caves. It's a 4 or 5 hour drive from Coyhaique to General Carrera Lake. A lot of the route is unpaved and also winding and bumpy. The boat tour to the caves departs from Puerto Tranquillo - a tiny village that is basically 2 shops, a petrol station and 5 or 6 little businesses offering boat trips to the caves. We were lucky with the weather, it was mid-September and the it

 Hi FAU Bloggers, As you might have guessed by now, I'm what's known in good Chilean as "pati-peri." However, aside from having been lucky enough to visit some amazing countries in my long life, I have also visited some amazing places in Chile. I travelled Chile from Arica to Aysen so I still have a third of the teritory left to discover. Today I'm going to write about a place in Chile I really enjoyed visiting and that I'd like to visit again: Malalcahuello.  I visited Malalcahuello in 2007 when one of my sisters was visiting from the UK. My sister arrive towards the end of February.  A few days after she arrived, and along with my wife, we decided to embark on a spontaneous road trip south. We packed up a tent and all our camping gear and headed South. We spent a night in Chanco, a couple of nights in Cobquecura and a night in Curacautin before arriving in Malalcuhuello. By this time my wife was tired of driving and wanted a holiday so we decided to stay a f

Good Morning FAU Bloggers: Today I'd like you to write about someone from your family. It could be a brother or sister, one of your parents or another relative (uncle, aunt, cousin, etc). I'm going to write about my brother Adrian. Well Adrian, or Ady (AD?) as we like to call him, currently lives in New Zealand with his wife and 2 kids - Ella and Freya (although both have left home now). He was a happy child, always joking and trying to make people laugh. He had a good temperament and rarely got angry. He learnt carpentry when he was a teenager and now works repairing violins and chelos and making groovy furniture. Ady is 18 months younger than me and we've always had a great relationship. He is someone you can depend on and is always ready to help out if things are complicated or you have a problem. The rest of the time he loves fooling about and playing music. He is a very good guitar player and an excellent violin player. He taught himself both instruments when he was yo