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However, this application is imperfect as some things such as named lakes and islands take no articles (Buttle Lake, Skull Island) except in plural instances (the Great Lakes, the Galapagos islands).

This exception applies to famous people who become unique in their fame:

A: I saw Nicole Kidman yesterday.

B: Nicole Kidman, the actor? (There is only one famous Nicole Kidman)

Another way of presenting articles is by giving the rules of using them in the mother tongue. Then the pupils practice applying the rule first orally and after that in written form.

Written texts are often one of the major sources through which language learners meet new vocabulary, grammar and articles in particular, so it is only logical that they should be used extensively in classroom teaching. They have the great advantage.

As the example the teacher may use different texts. Such as:

“There is no city quite like New York. It is known as “The City That Never Sleeps” and is the biggest commercial and cultural center in the world. Manhattan – the heart of the city – is only one of the five boroughs in this city. There are thousands of things to do and places to visit for tourists. The most famous landmark must be The Statue of Liberty – a symbol of freedom.

You can relax in Central Park, which is larger than Monaco! New York really does have something for everyone. ”[11:76]

1. Memory techniques.

The learners are said to forget about 50 per cent of the information received after the presentation. That is why there are some special techniques which help the teacher to promote more effective learning. In the process of teaching articles I use different tables, schemes which can help students to remember this theme better. I suggest using the following exercises:

1. a phrase scheme

to school the cinema

to go to bed to go to the theatre

home the hospital

The teacher asks the pupils to learn these examples by heart. This will help to understand the difference between using definite and zero articles.

1. a phrase fork

bus

to travel by car

boat

1. a tree diagram

to be

at in

school home … bed hospital …

The dotted lines mean that the learners can add more words to the tree as they meet them.

1. Further activities for practicing article.

After explaining the main rules of using articles and showing the examples it is easy for pupils to understand the correct use definite and indefinite articles. First of all, it is suggested that the teacher should use dialogues for discussion with different articles (see Appendix 2). The pupils must learn the rules and discuss speakers’ use of articles.

After that pupils can easily cope with different exercises. The following exercises are presented in an order of increasing difficulty. In the first exercises the pupils complete a sentence by choosing the correct articles from the suggested.

Add the or no article. This exercise helps the teacher to check students’ use of articles and their understanding of countable and uncountable nouns.

Please pass me … butter.

… butter is a dairy product.

John, where’s … milk? It is in … refrigerator or on … table?

… milk come from cows and goats.

Do you like … weather in this city?

… air is free.

… air is humid today.

Later they may be asked to complete sentences without any cues. They pick from the sentence patterns and the vocabulary they have studied the forms that best complete the sentence.

What are these things? Try and find out if you don’t know.

a cauliflower? It’s …………….

a pigeon? It …………………...

a skyscraper? ………………….

Earth? Mars? Venus? Jupiter? They ………………

the Rhine? the Nile? the Mississippi?......................

Give answers to the questions.

A friend of yours is in hospital. Where would you go to visit him? ………….

A friend of yours is in prison. Where would you go to visit him? ………….

A friend of yours is at church. If you wanted to meet him immediately after the service, where would you go?.....................................................

It is understood, of course, that the pupil is not expected to rack his brains for something to say even in the simplest of exercises. Suggestions for answers should be implicit in the context or when necessary should be made overly by the teacher.

Teachers should pay their attention to such activity as asking questions. There are several reasons why questions are important: they stimulate and maintain pupils’ interest; they encourage pupils to think and focus on the content of the lesson; they enable teachers to check pupils’ understanding; the questions helps the pupil both with the words and with pattern required for the answer.

Many textbooks and methodology manuals writers argued that games are not just time-filling activities but have a great educational value. Most games make learners use the language instead of thinking about learning the correct forms. In the easy, relaxed atmosphere which is created by using games, students remember things faster and better. That is why games are important part in the process of teaching articles and I try to use them in all possible ways. At the same time teachers should be very careful about choosing games if they want to have any results. They must correspond to the pupils’ level, age, to the material that is to be introduced or practiced. Here is the example of the game which can help teachers to combine teaching articles and vocabulary.

What’s in the picnic basket?

The teacher asks pupils to look at the picture. Make sure that they know the English names of everything in the basket. Pupils write the words in the correct column with a or an. The teacher can add some additional tasks to this game. Such as: make a list of foods you can take on a picnic.

What are they?

Review nationality adjectives with the aid of a map of the world. Pupils look at the pictures and say the correct nationality adjective for the objects with a or an. For example: an American, a Greek, a Spanish, an English, an American, an Italian, etc.

Another important point is dialogues. As while using games the teacher with the help of dialogues can combine teaching grammar and vocabulary (see Appendix 2). I suggest using the following activity.

Dialogue: Lady: Would you like … apple?

Guest: Oh, yes, please! I love … apples.

L: Well, there’s … big one and … small ones.

G: Oh, I’ll have … small one please.

L: Are you sure you won’t have … big one?

G: Yes, thanks. Mmm! What… tasty apple!

Work in pairs and act out similar conversations about some other fruit. Make general statement about your likes and dislikes of the things to eat listed below.

My investigation showed that combining all this activities helps to explain the material and it is easier for the students to understand it better.

2.4 Testing using articles.

Presenting the rules of using articles and doing different exercises are only primary activities. At the output phase every teacher needs information about the learners’ grammar skills. For assessing learners’ knowledge and ability to use the articles appropriately different testing techniques can be used. Such as:

1) Multiple-choice tests. In this type of exercise the pupils are asked to select from the forms given the one that makes the sentence correct from the forms they have studied the one required for a given context.

Multiple choice exercises can be used on all grade levels with increasing difficulty of content and form. Some sample exercises follow.

The learners have to select the correct variant.

to have

a. dinner b. the dinner c. a dinner

to go by

a. a car b. car c. the car

We found him at…

a. work b. the work c. a work

I have no pen at…

a. hand b. a hand c. hand

2) matching. This type is similar to the multiple choice type in that the pupils have to choose from the forms given the one that completes the sentence or the word-combination correctly. Instead of having several choices for each blank, however, there is usually an equal number of beginnings and endings of sentences or word-combinations. Once unscrambled, there is one correct ending for each beginning. Before starting doing this type of exercises the teacher should present a number of fixed phrases to the class, such as to have dinner, hand in hand, to go home and others. Here are some sample exercises.

1. day and a. the better

1. to have a b. hand

2. the sooner c. morning

3. in the d. headache

4. sun and e. cold

5. catch a f. night

6. hand in g. moon

3) sets. The learners are asked to read the lists of expressions. It is necessary to find the mistake in each list.

in the morning to leave town the Pacific Ocean

on the earth by chance the Lake Baikal

side by side from left to right at hand

the Black Sea at t he work arm in arm

4) completion exercises. This type of exercises requires more of the pupils than either the multiple choice or the matching type. In this type, the pupils are asked to supply the missing part of incomplete sentences.

Put in a/an, some, or the.

One day last month I was driving through the countryside, I saw … man and … truck next to … covered bridge. … bridge crossed … small river. I stopped and asked … man, “What’s the matter? Can I be of help?”

“Well,” said … man, “my truck is about a half inch too tall. Or … top of … bridge is a half inch too short. Either way, my truck won’t fit under … bridge.”

“Hmmm. There must be … solution to this problem,” I said.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll have to turn around and take another route”.

After a few moments of thought, I said, “Aha! I have … solution!”

“What is it?” said … man.

“Let a little air out of your tires. Then … truck won’t be too tall and you can cross … bridge over … river.”

“Hey, that’s … great idea. Let’s try it!” So … man let a little air out of … tires and was able to cross … river and be on his way.

5) The task is to choose one of the topics from those given below. The pupils should pay special attention to the use of articles.

“My Family”

“At School”

“My Working Day”

“My Holidays”

“Seasons and Weather”

Opportunity should be given for the pupil to express his own thoughts and ideas in these exercises. Though the pattern is there to limit or control the language he uses, he should be encouraged to express what he thinks, using the vocabulary he knows and the situations he is familiar with. It is only when the speaker feels that he is communicating his real purpose and intention that language has meaning for him.

In conclusion, it should be said that everything a pupil writes as a test must be easy for him because he is asked to write only those which he already knows thoroughly.

It cannot be stressed strongly enough that none of the above types of tasks can be used as tests if the pupils were not taught to do them in the process of learning the target language.

The results of my investigation show that there is no easy, systematic way to learn articles. They are best learnt through examples, word combination, phraseological units, and practice of different exercises. Teachers of English should draw pupils’ attention to articles in all possible ways. Here are some advantages you may wish to highlight:

• more information about using articles,

• more examples,

• often have grammar exercises,

• illustrations to teach lexical sets,

• have some exercises.

There is no “magic” way to learn articles. The best way to approach them is through regular and extensive practice. Exercises presented will give pupils practice in both understanding the meaning and using articles appropriately in context. [7:53; 11:138]

Conclusions

The article is a form-word of the noun, and serves to specify it. There are two articles in Modern English: the indefinite article and the definite article. The use of these articles depends mainly on whether you are referring to any member of a group, or to a specific member of a group. Another important, and so far unsolved problem is the question of teaching articles.

The indefinite article has two forms: a and an. The form a is used before words beginning with a consonant. The form an is used before words beginning with a consonant. The form an is used before words beginning with a vowel. The indefinite article originated from the Old English numeral an (one). As a result of its origin it is used only with countable nouns in the singular.

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