What You Say in English!

This idea of thinking of groups of words as one unit is nothing new, but it might help you think of different word categories (e.g., idioms, phrasal verbs, fixed phrases, binomials, among others) as having more things in common as you might have initially thought. They're Polywords.

I've prepared some activities that can help you understand polywords better:

1. Matching task
2. Reading and Use of English part 1 (C1/C2)
3. Reading and Use of English part 2 (C1/C2)

Answers can be found here.

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This episode is devoted to explaining how students can ace the second part of the speaking test: The Long Turn. As I mention in the episode, you can prepare the way you wish to organize your discourse, but not what vocabulary or grammar you will use. You will listen to three students speaking about three sets of images. They all had time to prepare and even write down what they wanted to say. So, when preparing, this might be a good idea to get used to the structure of your answer. You'll see how it easy it becomes. That way, you'll only have to worry about the language output, accuracy and range of vocabulary and structure and not the organization.

The visuals can be downloaded from here.

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I met Ethan back when I worked for International House Madrid. He's the sort of person you'd love to work with: knowledgeable, experienced, and, most importantly, quite approachable whenever you had doubts about your teaching. Nowadays, he keeps quite busy writing materials for exam preparation, Teacher Training courses and is also quite active in delivering presentations at many teaching conventions. Macmillan Publishers called him to write the Teachers Books for the newest edition of their successful series for Cambridge exams, Ready For, originally written by Amanda French and Roy Norris. Here, we talked about his work as an author and what he thinks of the exam preparation market in general.

To learn more about the newest edition of Ready For click here (B2 First and C1 Advanced)

To purchase the book he co-wrote with Riccardo Chiappini, Activities for Mediation, click here.

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Today, I'm bringing some American expressions that have been used worldwide. And they come from the time when the United States of America became independent from Great Britain, and the original 13 colonies expanded to the west. As usual, the transcript can be downloaded from here. How do you like these minicasts? Send your opinions to [email protected]

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Today's minicast is rather musical, because of the references I'm using, but all three idioms actually come from the sports world. As usual, I open with some real-life examples and tell you how you can use them in your everyday life and during speaking exams. The transcript can be downloaded from here. 

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Who doesn't want more knowledge? Today I'm bringing three wonderful expressions with the word knowledge. One of them, knowledge is power, even has a funny story of a guy who misunderstood it until he was an adult. Read more about this by following this link.

As always, this minicast has a transcript that you can download from here. 

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A sword is a fantastic weapon. It can cause admiration and terrible fear in people. Maybe that's why we've coined so many expressions with it. Today, you'll learn three fantastic ways in which you can use it during speaking exams. As in the previous minicast, download the transcript from here.

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As promised, a series of minicasts with an English expression (or expressions) that you can use in your everyday life or during a speaking test. You can download the transcript here.

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Inga, from Russia and Rebeca, from Spain, took part in this recorded mock exam with interesting things to analyze. They were both living in Oxford by the time they did this recording, and you can tell that they show a wide range of strong features in her speaking skills. Inga as Dphil student and Rebeca as part of the Bodleian libraries at the University of Oxford. Grab a notebook and make your notes as I offer my impressions of their performance. The visuals for this test can be downloaded from here.

I don't want to go without letting you know about the courses I'm planning for August. To save a spot and read all the preliminary information, go to the following websites:

• C1 Advanced Intensive course  
• C2 Proficiency Intensive course

If you still have questions, please send me an email to [email protected], and I will gladly give more information. I hope we can create a wonderful community of motivated learners. Not only will you be able to ask me any question you may have (directly), but you will make fantastic friends over that month that I'm sure will last for a lifetime. My current students have become great friends and they're even making plans to visit each other in the future.

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This is a full speaking mock for C1. Luca and Lorenzo did well enough to make a pass and listen to my advice so you can use the tips to ace your speaking exam. The visuals for this exam can be downloaded here.

As I mentioned last week. I finally bring information about the courses I'm planning for August. To save a spot and read all the preliminary information, go to the following websites:

• C1 Advanced Intensive course 
• C2 Proficiency Intensive course

If you still have questions, please send me an email to [email protected], and I will gladly give more information. I hope we can create a wonderful community of motivated learners. Not only will you be able to ask me any question you may have (directly), but you will make fantastic friends over the course of that month that I'm sure will last for a lifetime. My current students have become great friends and they're even making plans to visit each other in the future.

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