Crossword Genius

Uncultivated chap lacking English, penning article (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

fallow

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'uncultivated' is the definition.
(thesaurus)

'chap lacking english penning article' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'chap' could be 'al' and 'al' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'flow' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't understand.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for fallow that I've seen before include "idle" , "(Of land) left unsown" , "Uncultivated" , "Inactive" , "Undeveloped but potentially useful" .)

I've seen this clue in The Telegraph.
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