This was not the case. There was far more realistic depth to this than a mere action thriller. Mikael Blomkvist was an ‘ordinary’ journalist earning his crust and the book opens with what appears to be  a monumental failure when he loses a battle in court. He had published remarks about renowned business tycoon Wennerström – remarks that he could not substantiate because he refused to reveal his source and so had to pay damages and spend time in jail.

From the seeds of this failure we are led through a labyrinth of characters and events that take us into the worlds of publishing, big business and emotionally fragmented families and individuals. The girl with the dragon tattoo is not the oriental glamour puss one imagines but rather a feisty young girl who has dragged herself up from a deprived background and used her natural talents to become a master of the computing world and a highly skilled investigator, sometimes using unorthodox methods that always achieved her aims.

The gentle flow of prose, the gradual believable development of Mikael’s relationships with the characters and the taste of life in Sweden made the text very approachable and the book very readable.

There were times when the blood and gore shocked, but nevertheless the overall theme, the mystery and intrigue and the moments of climax were beautifully handled as you reach the end of the novel you are very much aware that this had been a very carefully sculptured piece.

This is definitely well worth reading.

Rosemary Westwell

Rosemary Westwell
rjwestwell@hotmail.com

His childhood in Des Moines USA shares many similarities with our own. It is easy to identify with Bill as a small boy as he learns to cope with the environment he finds himself born to. His endearing parents, loving but aloof, give the young Bill room to explore his imagination and to enjoy a natural and free childhood in a way that is seldom possible now. Throughout his Dennis the Menace type tales of mischief, there is a keen sense of humour. Bill Bryson, above all authors, gives a delicious slant on the ridiculousness of some of the quirks of nature and traditions.

The gang mentality of his school buddies, the inclination of children to tease the weakest, the inevitable endeavour of young lads to indulge in the forbidden fruits of adult pleasures are all part of his story. With Bill, none of these a portrayed as the wickedness of naughty children to be expunged but rather a healthy developmental process as he and his buddies grow up in a world beyond their control and often beyond their understanding. However, it is Bill who is the only child who sees how nonsensical it is to hide under a desk as a protection against an atomic bomb. Why bother? His relaxed attitude is exemplified as he sits calmly behind his desk surveying his class mates crouching under their desks below. Such disarming common sense made him unpopular with his teachers but he soon overcame any anxiety over this by developing his own special technique of zapping them with his imagined out-of-this-world secret powers. Cigarettes, the female figure, forbidden films and the problem of acquiring supplies of alcohol by his under-age pals were all at the heart of many of the adventures he and his friends enjoyed.

If you are looking for a quiet entertaining read with some in-depth research into 1950s America (that you hardly notice as it is spun so easily into his entertaining stories), this is the book for you. Read this and you will understand why Bill Bryson is so popular; you cannot help but be captivated by his persuasively, charming personality.

Rosemary Westwell

This novel succeeds on numerous levels. The one that appealed to me most was a description of the history of our understanding and treatment of mental illness. Having a member of the family suffer from this condition made the feelings and ideas of the lead characters, Thomas Midwinter and Jacques Rebière, intriguing, effective and realistic.  Their enthusiasm in their youth and how this changed over the years was particularly well portrayed.

I identified immediately with the academic ambitions of Thomas and the problems I encountered during my own PhD studies matched his particularly well.  No matter how many facts can be unearthed proving their causal relationship with the issue is very difficult.

On the personal level, the relationships between Thomas and Jacques, their marriages, children and their ups and downs over the years also rang true, although for me, Jacque’s affair near the end of the book was perhaps a little ‘over the top’.

Events occur in numerous places spanning Europe, America and Africa. The history and significance of these locations were an interesting integral part of the story.

If you want to think deeply about a subject; if you want to know the detail of the history of mental illness and its treatment; if you want to be well informed and if you want a good, long read – then this is the book for you.

Rosemary Westwell

The writing is positively charming, smooth and easy to the eye. This is the kind of book one needs for a holiday, especially one in Spain. Underlying the attractive doggie tales you are aware of this delightful British couple integrating readily into their new environment.

This book is highly recommended for a relaxed and heart-warming read.

I am in a bit of a quandary. While preparing the teachers’ DIY kit of ideas worksheets and exercises to prepare students for the IGCSE in English as a Second Language for next year’s IATEFL Conference (I hope), it struck me that I don’t REALLY know the difference between ‘register’ and ‘style’. It is a good idea to know what you are talking about when writing a textbook, so I need to know: what IS the difference between ‘register’ and ‘style’?

I searched the web and read the books I could get my hands on and it seems to me the simple difference is ‘register’ is concerned more with specific language choices i.e. whether vocabulary and grammar is ‘formal’ or ‘informal’.

‘Style’, on the other hand, not only concerns register but looks at the way the words, sentences and paragraphs are put together. A particular author may have a preferred style – e.g. Jane Austen.  ‘Style’ also concerns the correct or conventional use of language e.g. is ending sentences with prepositions using a correct/appropriate style of English for the purpose intended?

When the examination specifications mention ‘audience’, I assume that when considering an appropriate register and style one is also considering the audience – the person/people for whom the language is written.

Sorted. I hope – DO correct me if I am wrong!

On the plus side, I have to admit I enjoyed the well choreographed battle fights, the detail of the history of that era in America and the feeling that the novel had a well thought-out structure.

But alas, I missed the more modern human interactions, the red herrings and the brooding psychology of the characters that modern ‘who dunnits’ seem to employ.

If you want a quick read, like of bit of excitement and enjoy westerns, then you too might like to take a look at Ross or Nick Morton’s books.

It was one in the morning. I closed the book and cried. I had just finished reading ‘An Equal Music’ by Vikram Seth. No other book, person or experience has touched me so deeply. Through the thoughts of violinist Michael and his desire for Julia, his soul mate, I relived the intensity of my own student life as an emerging pianist.  The author broke through the imaginary wall I had built over the years to protect my feelings from the pain and suffering of unrequited love and the intensity of heightened emotions developed through  constant involvement with music and the musical world.

With uncanny insight, Seth’s words transported me far deeper into the elusive world of music than I have ever been with any other writer. He captured exactly the exhilaration of those rare moments when a phrase is so exquisitely expressed that time stands still and the imprint of the moment is permanently implanted into the life force memory of performer and listener – the very reason for the existence of music in our lives.

Yet I do not share this author’s knowledge and love of his cities, the compositions he writes about, and even the musical import of the pieces he includes.  I have visited Vienna, Venice and London which are interesting enough, offer most enjoyable musical experiences but my city of musical intensity is Melbourne. Schubert and ‘The Trout’ are expressive enough. I admire Schubert’s lightheartedness and lyrical beauty but for me it does not reach the darker parts of the soul that Beethoven does and it is one short phrase in Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto for piano that has haunted me over the years. Bach and his fugues impress me, they intrigue me and in the most powerful moments of development, it is the tension rather than the emotional impact that transfixes me.

When Michael has moments of weakness and is unable to play – these moments do not ring true for me. No matter what emotional upheaval may be driving my life, music is my saviour — playing it helps to release my anguish or anger. But I was never as talented as Michael, so that is probably why I do not fully understand.

The strength of the book is that it has moved me so much in spite of our differences.  If you have ever studied music, you must read this book, but get your tissues ready.

I have a bright idea that no one else has thought of – well, okay, maybe it is what teachers do anyway but my idea is better. I like to say it is more profound.

The theory is, you get students to follow a 4 step progamme:

First they ‘notice’ – meaning ‘look at’ the target language, then they relate it to what they know, they practise it and then they recall it later. Simple. This is obviously the best way to learn.

Okay then. I should be able to teach myself by following this method. I’ll be fluent in Spanish in no time. At the moment I speak a kind of Spanglish – a pigeon Spanish littered with the wrong nouns, words without endings and absolutely no verbs in the past or future.

My cleaning lady has moved my flip flops.  I know I should do my own cleaning – I have such a small flat — but she is Spanish and I want her to help me learn the language. Unfortunately, she has no teeth, speaks a dialect and yells so I am not doing very well. I cringe to think what the neighbours hear when we try to have a ‘conversation’. My favourite word is ‘que?’ So I’ll have to get the Spanish word for ‘flip-flops’ just right. It is not in the dictionary (surprise, surprise). In desperation I ask on Facebook – Maureen kindly gives me the word. It is ‘chancletas’. There, I’ve noticed my new word. Now how am I going to relate it to what I know? – simple – they are my flip-flops and I can picture them easily. I need more. Okay I’ll use the Linkword method – you know, you imagine silly interacting pictures that sound like the word. What does chancletas remind me of? I suppose the first bit is like ‘chunk’, the next ‘let’ and the last ‘us’. So I could imagine saying ‘Chunk let us …’ Who is Chunk? – Well Chunk sounds like ‘Hunk’ so I’ll imagine a hunk of a man. Mm. What would he ‘let us’ do? Something funny, or bizarre with flip- flops. Maybe he would let us have a flip-flop fight – boring. Maybe a flip-flop eating – no I feel sick. I know, I’ll imagine Chunk letting us cover his lovely body with flip-flops. Mm that’s better.

Okay, so what’s the word? My picture springs to mind. Mm What is the word? – something to do with flip flops and a good-looking man – oh Hunk, – I mean Chunk – ah yes Chunk let us Chancletas. Brilliant! See it works. Now I’ll try to remember the word for flip flops tomorrow.

Tomorrow came and I remembered a gorgeous looking man covered with flip-flops, but could I remember the word? No chance. I despair. I think I’ll just look up sandals in the dictionary when the cleaning lady comes.

(This piece was written in a similar style to the book ‘Out of a Learner’s Mouth’: the trials and tribulations of learning Spanish) …

I have included the whole review and my response to the bit she did not like. What do you think?

Review:

Rosemary Westwell’s book “Teaching Language Learners” covers territory familiar to language teachers in an original way.  The main focus of the book is the need to adapt teaching methods to the individual needs of language learners, a concept which Rosemary has developed through her own experiences of learning Spanish.  The book focuses on the actual process of acquisition, recognizing that it is our “internal thinking” and personal ideas and points of view which must be addressed for learning to take place.

Given the obvious premise that no teacher can be familiar with the individual thought processes of all their students, Rosemary gives a number of pointers to help teachers become aware of the issue and to help learners to recognize their own learning patterns.  One of her key concepts is the focus on internal “needs” rather than external “goals” of language acquisition.  There is also a recognition that unconscious processes run alongside conscious processes, facilitating acquisition in unexpected ways outside the classroom environment.

“Teaching Language Learners” also contains a range of interesting and useful summaries and resources. There are lists of “false friends”, learning strategies, language teaching methods, summaries of grammar rules and definitions, spelling rules and topics for debate.  Each list stands on its own as a generic resource for both learning and teaching contexts.

The weakest point of the book for me are the examples of Rosemary’s own learning strategies using picture memory techniques, clearly because by their very nature they are individual, and as such do not coincide with methods useful to me in my learning.  Having said that, these personal examples abundantly illustrate the fact that when traditional methods fail we should not be afraid to look to our own internal thinking processes to advance our language learning.

Jane Cronin

Reply:

I am interested to learn that you do not find using pictures/images useful – Maybe you are one of these lucky ‘natural’ language learners who find learning languages easy…?

I have found using picturing/imagery very useful for me and for others – when teaching EFL and English on a number of different occasions and with different students. I plan this to be my next area of ‘study’. When I was studying for the MA in TESOL, our tutor demonstrated the ‘Linkword’ technique developed by Michael Gruneberg and the group of us was amazed at the speed with which we learned new words. However, for me, although this technique works well – I do not remember the words long-term. I need to practise recalling the words several times at different intervals.

Rosemary Westwell