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THE UNITED KINGDOMSongs from the Wild North: Matty GrovesLearner Training: Vocabulary in Context

Task 1: READING AND LISTENING Matty Groves

A holiday, a holiday, and the first one of the year

Lord Darnell's wife came into the church, the gospel for to hear.

"Well it's true I have two beaten swords and they cost me deep in the purse

But you will have the better of them and I will have the worse

And you will strike the very first blow and strike it like a man

I will strike the very next blow and I'll kill you if I can"

Little Matty Groves, he lay down and took a little sleep

When he awoke, Lord Darnell was standing at his feet

Saying "How do you like my feather bed and how do you like my sheets

How do you like my lady who lies in your arms asleep? "

"A grave, a grave," Lord Darnell cried, "to put these lovers in

But bury my lady at the top for she was of noble kin"

Warsaw ELT Forum 1st – 3rd September 2017, The United Kingdom, with Matthew JacksonLike us https://www.facebook.com/learningwithoutborders.eu/

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And a servant who was standing by and hearing what was said

He swore Lord Darnell he would know before the sun would set.

And in his hurry to carry the news, he bent his breast and ran

And when he came to the broad millstream, he took off his shoes and he swam.

"Oh, I can't come home, I won't come home and sleep with you tonight

By the rings on your fingers I can tell you are my master´s wife".

"But if I am Lord Darnell's wife, Lord Darnell's not at home

He is out in the far cornfields bringing the yearlings home".

And then up spoke his own dear wife, never heard to speak so free

"I'd rather a kiss from dead Matty's lips than you or your finery"

Lord Darnell he jumped up and loudly he did bawl

He struck his wife right through the heart and pinned her against the wall

And when the meeting it was done, she cast her eyes about

And there she saw little Matty Groves, walking in the crowd.

"Come home with me, little Matty Groves, come home with me tonight

Come home with me, little Matty Groves, and sleep with me till light".

"Oh, well I like your feather bed and well I like your sheets

But better I like your lady who lies in my arms asleep"



"Well, get up, get up," Lord Darnell cried, "get up as quick as you can

It'll never be said in fair England that I slew a naked man"

"Oh, I can't get up, I won't get up, I can't get up for my life

For you have two long beaten swords and I not a pocket knife"

So Matty struck the very first blow and he hurt Lord Darnell sore

Lord Darnell struck the very next blow and Matty struck no more

And then Lord Darnell, he took his wife and he sat her on his knee

Saying "Who do you like the best of us, Matty Groves or me?"

Discuss these questions with your partner: How old do you think the song is? What character do you think the writer(s) has most sympathy with? Why? What type of themes do traditional songs have in Poland? Is it similar or

different? Why do people love songs about violence like this or “Gangsta rap” in

modern times? Do violent songs or films influence behaviour or do they simply reflect the way people behave in real life?

Is society getting more or less violent in your opinion?



Task 2: SPEAKING, VOCABULARY AND LEARNER TRAINING

Beatle John Lennon Slain – Shot Down Outside New York Apartment – Los Angeles Times (newspaper)

There Gollum crouched, smelling and listening; and Bilbo was tempted to slay him with his sword – The Lord of the Rings (J R R Tolkien)

It is no easy thing to slay a dragon, but it can be done – Game of Thrones, George RR Martin.

“Let he who is without sin cast the first stone”, the Gospel according to Saint John (The Bible)

A cast net, also called a throw net, is a net used for fishing. It is a circular net with small weights distributed around its edge. The net is cast into the water by hand so that it spreads out and sinks. –Wikipedia

“Statistics cast doubt on government’s 500,000 new jobs claim”, The Guardian (newspaper)

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all? (Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney)

“Faint heart never won fair lady”, As you like it (William Shakespeare)

Man (47) dies after being struck by a car in Dublin – Irish Times (newspaper)

A strike with the hand closed into a fist is called a punch, a strike with the leg or foot is referred to as a kick and a strike with the head is called a headbutt – Wikipedia.

A YOUNG man, brutally murdered over a game of football at a Bradford park, is thought to have died from a blow to the head by a baseball bat, an inquest heard today. Bradford Telegraph and Argus (newspaper)

Loch Lomond is Scotland's largest loch, or lake, measuring 24 miles long and five miles wide at its broadest point. It is studded, near its southern end, with 33 islands. – Los Angeles Times (newspaper)

Travel broadens the mind, English proverb.

HIGHGATE CEMETERY, LONDON—On a summer visit to the grave of Karl Marx, Ben Gliniecki found that he would have to pay £4, or about $6, to pay respects to the man who sounded the death knell for private property. Mr. Gliniecki, a Marxist, said no. - Wall Street Journal (newspaper)Warsaw ELT Forum 1st – 3rd September 2017, The United Kingdom, with Matthew Jackson

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headbutt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kick

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punch_(strike)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casting_(fishing)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing_sinker

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing_net

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fishing_net

11 Amazing movies that will Make you bawl like a baby – salon.com

LIMERICK FC manager Neil McDonald said Blues supporters had 'every right to shout and bawl' at him and the players in the wake of their defeat. Limerick Leader (Newspaper)

Police in Perth are appealing for witnesses following a report of a 92 year-old woman who had her purse stolen from within her home address in Iona Court, North Muirton earlier today – Perth Gazette (newspaper)

I always have ideas and things I'd like to share, but for some reason I'm scared to speak up. I spend more time thinking whether or not I should say something in a meeting than I do saying things. Any advice? Quora.com

“you ain't no friend of mine, you ain't no kin of mine” – 50 cent (rapper)

Her death is not being treated as suspicious, police have confirmed. The victim has not been identified yet and next of kin are yet to be informed. – Daily Record (newspaper)

Caroline Baudelaire was a good-looking woman who delighted in dressing in her finery when going out at night. Dailybest.com

Women's Fashion designed to re-inspire - Finery London | UKhttps://www.finerylondon.com/

Women's Fashion designed to re-inspire - Finery London. UK.

Match the words to the definition

1. Slay2. Gospel3. Cast4. Fair5. Strike6. Blow7. Broad8. Grave9. Bawl10. Purse11. Speak

up12. Finery13. Kin

a) Family (noun) (archaic, dialect)b) Wide (adj)c) A place where women keep money: in medieval times a small

pouch or bag for money (noun)d) To throw (verb)e) To cry like a baby (verb)f) To speak loudly: to express an opinion without being afraid

(verb)g) Religious teachings; One of the four books of the New

Testament written by Mark, Matthew, Luke and John (noun)h) Beautiful (adj) (archaic or literary)i) To kill violently, usually with a weapon such as a sword (verb)

(archaic or literary)j) A place dug in the ground to put a dead body (noun)k) To hit (verb)l) An impact after being hit (noun)m) Expensive or eye-catching clothes or jewellery (noun)



https://www.finerylondon.com/

Task 3: VOCABULARY AND LEARNER TRAINING Collocations

Exercise 1: Collocations with cast and throw

The difference between close synonyms is sometimes due to their collocations.

Cast is less common than throw, but is sometimes used with specific collocations and expressions. Which of the following can be used with cast or with throw? Write cast/throw in the spaces.

_________ your mind back to_________ a ball_________ a punch_________ a net/a fishing line_________ a stone_________ the first stone_________ doubt on/upon_________ your vote_________ a spell on someone_________ the dice_________ money away

Which word tends to be used in more metaphorical situations?

Exercise 2: Collocations with wide and broad

Wide is used more often to describe physical dimensions while broad is used more often in fixed expressions. Which of the following go with broad or wide? (or both)

_________ river_________ minded_________ awake_________ open_________ daylight_________ hint_________ agreement_________ street_________ smile_________ range of

Exercise 3: Chose the 5 expressions you find most useful and write example sentences in your notebook.



THE UNITED KINGDOM: Songs from the Wild North

Matty Groves

Level strong B2/C1

Aims: Reading (awareness of narrative structure)/Learner Autonomy

This lesson takes a common English folk song „Matty Groves” and uses it to raise awareness of aspects of vocabulary learning and also to look at elements of discourse structure of the sort that are tested in FCE and CAE type „missing sentences” tasks. Students first put the lyrics of the song in order in pairs, identifying cause-effect relations and question-answer relations in the text as they do so. Then they look at the vocabulary, much of which may prove unfamiliar to them, and after deducing its meaning, decide which items are most important and which can be discarded, and also look at what aspects of vocabulary e.g. collocations versus single words etc, they should write down.

Procedure

Task 1: READING AND LISTENING Matty Groves

Lyrics Teacher gives students a cut up copy of the “Matty Groves” lyrics and tells

them that it is an old story from England and that the first part starts with “A holiday, a holiday…..” Students then try to put the story together in pairs without being given further information Different groups normally take different amounts of time to do this but it typically takes them around 10 minutes.

When groups are finished they compare with the pair next to them and explain why they think it goes in that order. The teacher tells them to identify the cause and effect relationships and world knowledge that they used to put the song in order.

The teacher then plays the song “Matty Groves” on Youtube video or other recording. There are numerous versions of this song and some of them have different lyrics but this will match the Fairport Convention version of the song, which is the most famous (there is a three minute guitar solo at the end which the teacher might want to skip for time reasons!) and easy to find, e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1it7BP5PckI&list=RD1it7BP5PckIng



Class discussion

The teacher asks them how many guessed it was a song (and why) and then hands out the discussion questions to be answered (orally in pairs). During class feedback the teacher can explain that this is an old folk song that is at least 400 years old (when it was first mentioned) and may even be as old as 700-800 years old since the society it depicts is much older than 400 years old.

The teacher can also ask questions to ensure that students have understood the story correctly before proceeding to look at the vocabulary part, e.g. why does Lord Darnell offer Matty his best sword? (because he’s confident that he will win because he is a knight and presumbily well-trained and Matty is not). Why does Matty refuse to get out of bed? (Because Lord Darnell will kill him) Why does Lord Darnell insist on fighting Matty instead of just killing him? (He is worried about his reputation, also for legal reasons because if he kills Matty in a duel it doesn’t count as murder according to the law of the time – whereas killing his wife would count as murder, and as she was a noble woman, Lord Darnell might end up being executed for it). Why does the servant run to Lord Darnell? (Because he is loyal to his master). Why is Lady Darnell confident that they won’t be caught? (Her husband is away) Etc etc.


Vocabulary in Context

Students are given a sheet of paper with examples of words used in the song presented in a variety of random contexts found in Google searches. This is intended to be similar to a sort of „mini-corpus”. Using the song and the examples students work in pairs to guess the meanings of different words.

After guessing, students are given a multiple choice exercise where they match the words to their definitions before class feedback.

The teacher elicits what you need to know about a word before you can use it – ideas like pronunciation, meaning, syntax and grammar (e..g verbs like promise go with infinitive, irregular verbs and plurals etc, dependent prepositions), word formation rules, connocations (e.g. „cunning” has a more negative meaning than „intelligent”, register and dialect etc.

The teacher elicits examples of collocations, e.g. „have a coffee”, „pay attention” and how these differ between languages and are often arbitrary. The teacher then elicits examples from the text, e.g. „strike a blow” and „take off your shoes” but not „bent his breast” as this is not common enough to be a collocation. The teacher then points out that close synonyms such as



„wide” and „broad” and „throw” and „cast” are often distinguished by what collocates with them.

The teacher points out the word „yearling”, which refers to some sort of animal, presumibly a year old and probably sheep or perhaps cows and points out that this word is rare and only used by (some) farmers and that most English speakers won’t necessarily know what it means. The teacher can also look at the word „slay” which is mostly archaic or literary and is only used in fantasy fiction, sensationalist newspaper headlines or in specific collocations like „slay a dragon”. Is this really a useful word to know? The teacher can also indicate that „kin” is mostly either dialectal or archaic and that „fair” in the sense of beautiful is also archaic or literary.

Students then decide with their partners which 5 words of the new vocabulary are most useful to remember and they then write down example sentences of each word to record them in their notebooks. This can be extended by reading sentences with the word missing to other students to see if they can guess the word. How easy it is to guess the word should be an indication of how good the example sentence is.


Collocations – students are told that the difference between wide and broad and between throw and cast in both cases is that the first one is more common and more often used literally, while the second synonym is in both cases generally used in very speciific contexts or fixed expresssions. Students fill in the spaces with the correct word.

For homework students check the collocations in a good online dictionary and then write 5 example sentences of the expressions they consider to be most useful.



Answer Key

Task 1: READING AND LISTENING Matty Groves - song in correct order

A holiday, a holiday, and the first one of the yearLord Darnell's wife came into the church, the gospel for to hear.

And when the meeting it was done, she cast her eyes aboutAnd there she saw little Matty Groves, walking in the crowd.

"Come home with me, little Matty Groves, come home with me tonightCome home with me, little Matty Groves, and sleep with me till light".

"Oh, I can't come home, I won't come home and sleep with you tonightBy the rings on your fingers I can tell you are my master´s wife".

"But if I am Lord Darnell's wife, Lord Darnell's not at homeHe is out in the far cornfields bringing the yearlings home".

And a servant who was standing by and hearing what was saidHe swore Lord Darnell he would know before the sun would set.

And in his hurry to carry the news, he bent his breast and ranAnd when he came to the broad millstream, he took off his shoes and he swam.

Little Matty Groves, he lay down and took a little sleepWhen he awoke, Lord Darnell was standing at his feet

Saying "How do you like my feather bed and how do you like my sheetsHow do you like my lady who lies in your arms asleep? "



"Oh, well I like your feather bed and well I like your sheetsBut better I like your lady who lies in my arms asleep"

"Well it's true I have two beaten swords and they cost me deep in the purseBut you will have the better of them and I will have the worse

And you will strike the very first blow and strike it like a manI will strike the very next blow and I'll kill you if I can"

So Matty struck the very first blow and he hurt Lord Darnell soreLord Darnell struck the very next blow and Matty struck no more

And then Lord Darnell, he took his wife and he sat her on his kneeSaying "Who do you like the best of us, Matty Groves or me?"

And then up spoke his own dear wife, never heard to speak so free"I'd rather a kiss from dead Matty's lips than you or your finery"

Lord Darnell he jumped up and loudly he did bawlHe struck his wife right through the heart and pinned her against the wall

"A grave, a grave," Lord Darnell cried, "to put these lovers inBut bury my lady at the top for she was of noble kin"




Vocabulary in Context

1. i2. g3. d4. h5. k6. l7. b8. j9. e10.c11.f12.m13.a


Exercise 1:cast your mind back tothrow a ballthrow a punchcast a net/a fishing linethrow a stonecast the first stonecast doubt on/uponcast your votecast a spell on someonethrow the dicethrow money away

Exercise 2:A wide riverBroad mindedwide awakewide opena broad daylightA broad hintA broad agreementA wide streeta broad smileA wide range of



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