Ted Power
English Language Learning and Teaching

Lesson Materials

Beginners to Elementary

Pre-intermediate and Intermediate

Higher Intermediate and Advanced

Phonology and phonetics - / ðɪs ɪz hɒt / !!!

Grammar and vocabulary

Speaking and listening: 28 popular discussion topics + relevant vocabulary

Ewan MacColl [1915-1989] helped to bring about the British folk song revival of the 1950s, which remained strong until the early 1970s. He proceeded to build on the British tradition of ballads rather than American folk roots (e.g. spirituals, blues, hobo, skiffle) - he was to find a partner with a good knowledge of American ballads. This link provides access to Ewan's own compositions, including the songs from the radio ballads in which he captures the speech rhythms and vocabulary of British people - railway workers, road builders, miners, fishermen, gypsies, teenagers and boxers. The radio ballads were a landmark in radio drama and song composition. They also provide excellent material for language learning at higher levels.

Among Ewan's most famous song compositions are: 'The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face' (written for his wife - Peggy Seeger), 'Dirty Old Town' (written about Salford, Manchester - an industrial surburb in the north of England) and 'The Manchester Rambler' (written for the Great Trespass - which gave walkers from the city rights of way and access to countryside). Ewan songs are mainly about love and social / political topics. Ewan's first love was the theatre - he helped to found Theatre Workshop with his first wife, Joan Littlewood. He was to have two later marriages and a total of five children. His second wife was Jean Newlove - assistant to dance movement teacher, Rudolph Laban, and mother of Hamish and (the late) Kirsty MacColl.

Peggy Seeger, born in 1935 and still writing and performing her own songs, was married to Ewan MacColl from the late 1950s until his death in 1989. They produced three children: Neill, Calum and Kitty MacColl - two talented musicians and a capable singer. Peggy herself is from a famous musical family. Her mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger, was both a folk music collector and one of the foremost 20th-century female classical composers. Her father, the musicologist Charles Seeger, was also father (by an earlier marriage) to the American folk-singer Pete Seeger.

Peggy is accomplished on several instruments, notably banjo, guitar, Appalachian dulcimer, English concertina and autoharp. Perhaps the best known of her early song compositions is 'Gonna be an engineer'. However, this link also provides access to Peggy's more recent song compositions: more on women's rights, some moving love songs, lyrics on a full range of social issues including anti-war and pro-environment campaigns. The link too provides a full index of Peggy's song titles and access to suppliers of her CD albums and songbook.

Reading comprehension

Writing - external links

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5. -- Higher Intermediate vocabulary and discussion - topics 1 to 10: 1. Alternative Beliefs 2. Animal Welfare 3. The Arts 4. Crime and Punishment 5. Cultural Differences 6. Economics 7. Education 8. Environment 9. Fashion 10. Food

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