In Italian the verb 'fornire' means to supply, which is similar to the French 'fournir'. Both words seem to have their origins in Latin, seeing as one word in Latin which means the same is 'orno'.Then one could compare both the French and Italian to the English verb 'furnish', which in one of … [Read more...]
Developing comprehension
December 6, 2006 By 6 Comments
As I mentioned in a recent post about comprehension skills, in order to develop my own comprehension level, I have started listening to Italian radio - Radio 1 - which has some music, but a lot of phone-ins about topical social and economic issues affecting Italy. It's early days yet, but while I … [Read more...]
Comprehension
December 4, 2006 By Leave a Comment
I have come across this phenomenon a few times - people who can speak English very well indeed and are capable of using a wide variety of natural expressions, but, for some reason they are not always able to understand certain aspects of the content of more complex conversations. These people … [Read more...]
Language level test
November 27, 2006 By Leave a Comment
Quite a while back I cooked up a 90 question multiple choice test to help me divide groups of between 30 and 50 people into two or four sub-groups. My test has proved to be very effective and certainly speeds up the process of dividing classes into groups.The test attempts to assess both grammar … [Read more...]
When banal is good.
November 27, 2006 By Leave a Comment
I spoke to someone who complemented me on my work website - englishisin.com. She said that although the advice on it was 'banale' it actually made sense. The part she was referring to was my technique for training your mind to think in English. The method I propose is to start by looking … [Read more...]
Italy Chronicles Feed
Recent Comments