"YOU SPEAK A LANGUAGE THAT I UNDERSTAND NOT"

My students   know  that  I  definitely  believe   William Shakespeare  is   the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. 

Recently  I have found an  incredibly interesting  video from the  Open University. I think it is very useful to understand the genius of the "Bard of Avon"  better ... to put it in a nutshell,  it is  an  introduction  by  David and Ben  Crystal to the "Original Pronunciation" of  Shakespeare's  language.  Enjoy!

II PROVA SCRITTA ESAMI DI STATO

Last Thursday  just a couple of  my students of  5^ C Liceo Linguistico decided to take the English test on the day of  their II Prova Scritta, rather than the French or Spanish test. 

It included a text analysis, a summary and a composition, but they could  choose between an article about the 2012 London Olympic Games, taken from The Financial Times, and one of Robert Frost's most  celebrated  poems,  "The Road not Taken".

Here  you can download  both of them,  just in case you are curious!

By the way, I have found some gorgeous YouTube clips about Robert Frost's poem.  I hope you will find them inspiring!

ESAMI DI STATO 2012

GOOD LUCK TO MY STUDENTS OF 5^ C LICEO LINGUISTICO FOR THEIR FINAL EXAMS!

“Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing,  it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable  of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning.” 

Mahatma Gandhi

W. H. AUDEN

W.H.Auden was a young, sensational English poet of the 1930s who became an elder statesman of Anglo-American literature by the time he died in 1973. He made his reputation while still at Oxford in the 1920s, and by the time he left England for New York to avoid World War II he was considered the spokes-poet of a generation - a  learned, socially conscious and technically brilliant rising star. He became even more famous when  he won the 1948  Pulitzer  for the long poem The Age of Anxiety.  

Critics and scholars still regard Auden as one of the 20th century's great poets, but few of his poems are familiar to mainstream audiences.

His poetry gained new notice in recent years, thanks to the film Four Weddings and a Funeral, which features Auden's poem Funeral Blues ("Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone"). 

You can download a  PDF presentation here.

Now you can watch a documentary film looking at the poetry of W.H.Auden, revealing how it came not just from inspiration but from a rigorous scientific analysis of love itself.