READ & DISCUSS

Family Life in Historical Context

PRE-READING ACTIVITIES

I. A Lesson in History

1. Research general information characterizing the fourteenth century; describe the most important events in Russia and in Britain in that period.

2. Who were the rulers of these countries?

II. Learn the following words and phrases:

without doubt, to be hard, to obey smb., to trust, disobedient, exhausting, the wife of a noble, responsibilities, to be in charge of, a harvest, to run the household, manor, to improve smth., wealth, to look after children.

FAMILY LIFE IN THE LATE MIDDLE AGES

Little is known about the life of English women in the Middle Ages, but without doubt it was hard. The Church taught that women should obey their husbands. It also spread two very different ideas about women: that they should be pure and holy like the Virgin Mary; and that, like Eve, they could not be trusted and were a moral danger to men. Such religious teaching led men both to worship and also to look down on women, and led women to give in to men’s authority.

Marriage was usually the single most important event in the lives of men and women. But the decision itself was made by the family, not the couple themselves. This was because by marriage a family could improve its wealth and social position. Everyone, both rich and poor, married for mainly financial reasons. Once married, a woman had to accept her husband as her master. A disobedient wife was usually beaten. It is unlikely that love played much of a part in most marriages.

The first duty of every wife was to give her husband children, preferably sons. Because so many children died as babies, and because there was little that could be done if a birth went wrong, producing children was dangerous and exhausting. Yet it is was the future for every wife from twenty or younger until she was forty.

The wife of a noble had other responsibilities. When her lord was away, she was in charge of the villagers, the harvest and the animals. She also had to defend the manor if it was if was attacked. She had to run the household, welcome visitors, and store enough food, including salted meat, for winter. She was expected to have enough knowledge of herbs and plants to make suitable medicines for those in the village who were sick. She probably visited the poor ant sick in the village, showing that the rulers “cared” for them. She had little time for her own children, who in any case were often sent away at the age of eight to another manor, the boys to “be made into men”.

Most women, of course, were peasants, busy making food, making cloth and making clothes from the cloth. They worked in the fields, looked after the children, the geese, the pigs and the sheep, made the cheese and grew the vegetables. The animals probably shared the family shelter at night. The family home was dark and smelly. A woman’s position improved if her husband died. She could get control of the money her family had given the husband at the time of marriage, usually about one-third of his total land and wealth. But she might have to marry again: men wanted her land, and it was difficult to look after it without the help of a man.

READING ACTIVITIES

I. Read the text. Divide it into parts; make a plan of the text.

II. Find the answers to the following questions:

a. What was the position of the Church towards to a woman in the family?
b. What was the most wide spread reason for marriage in those times?
c. What were the main responsibilities of the wife in the family?
d. When could a woman gain control of her family’s income?

III. Give the English equivalents to the Russian words and word-combinations.

Уезжать, соленое мясо, соответствующие медикаменты, убогие и больные, делить кров, получить контроль над деньгами, одна треть земли и состояния, вести домашнее хозяйство, чистый и святый, моральное искушение, поклоняться.

IV. Find the word-combinations with the verb to make, learn them.

V. Match the words with the same meanings.

VI. Make a list of responsibilities: of the wife of a noble; of the wife of a peasant.

POST -READING ACTIVITIES

I. Identify errors in the underlined parts of the sentences. There is only one error in each sentence. Find it.

Answers:

1. A; 2. C; 3. B; 4. B; 5. A; 6. C; 7. B; 8. B; 9. B; 10. B

II. Act out these situations which take place in different times and in different countries.

1. A husband is going to be away. What kind of conversation could take place between him and his wife?

a. in the Middle Ages in Russia;
b. in the Middle Ages in Britain;
c. in present-day Russia,
d. in present-day Britain.

2. Parents want their daughters to marry.

3. A wife doesn’t want to look after the house.

После выполнения лексических и грамматических упражнений, можно предложить учащимся дополнительные устные и письменные здания.

Примеры устных заданий:

– поиск дополнительной информации о событиях данного исторического отрезка времени в странах: Россия, Британия, США. Как события в стране нашли отражения в укладе быта и семьи этих стран;
– ролевая игра: утро в семье феодала; в семье крестьянина;
– поиск и использование картинок для описания жизни людей в данный период;
– экскурсия по музею, по историческим залам;
– игра “Путешествие во времени” с использованием различных форм диалогов (запрос информации, сообщение информации, взаимный обмен информацией, обмен впечатлениями, мнения);
– игры-загадки. Работа по группам. Одна группа показывает или рассказывает исторические сценки, связанных с бытом. Другая группа определяет эпоху и страну.
– игра “А что у вас?”. Класс делится на две группы – представителей двух стран. I группа: У нас в XIV веке муж – хозяин и господин в семье. А у вас?

Письменные задания:

– составление сводных и сравнительных таблиц жизненного уклада в семье в различные периоды, в разных странах;
– написание рефератов и сочинений по темам: “Влияние политической жизни в стране на жизнь и быт в семье: “Глобальные исторические изменения и их влияние на жизнь людей в разных странах. Сравнительный анализ”, “Если бы я мог путешествовать во времени, я бы….”;
– написание рекламных проспектов, рассказывающих о залах музея посвященных различным историческим эпохам.

Аналогичная работа предлагается по темам: “The Family in the Stuart Age”; “The Tudors’ Century”; “The 18th Century Family ”

ЛИТЕРАТУРА:

1. Миролюбов А.А. Вопросы контроля обученности учащихся иностранному языку, Титул, 2001.
2. Спасская Е. Б. Уроки английского языка, Каро, 2000.
3. Хитон Д. Словарь типичных ошибок английского языка, М., Русский язык, 1991.
4. Bell J.J., The History of England, Питер, С-П, 1995.
5. Mc. Dowall, History of Britain, Longman, 1996.

Е. В. Шананина,
Тобольский педагогический колледж,
Тюменская обл.