Thursday, March 10, 2005, 21:39 GMT
I want to teach articles (a/an, the, null) to a bunch of Polish software and hardware engineers. Does anyone have specific tips for this?
Say they're writing a procedure for configuring a device that has two interfaces, each of which in turn has four ports. (I'm making that up, but that's generally the idea.) Do you have any tips on showing them how to select "a port" in one situation and "the port" in another?
I'm thinking of trying drawings. In this case, a diagram of a box (device) containing two smaller boxes (interfaces), each of which contains four even smaller boxes (ports), and then showing how we could talk about configuring "a device" (indefinite) by powering up "the device" (definite) and selecting "an interface" (indefinite), and then configuring "a port" (indefinite) on "the interface" (definite), and then enabling "the port" (definite), and so on. As the focus and scope change, the articles change.
Or something like that. Do you have any suggestions for concrete exercises related to problems like this? Cool tips on using diagrams to show articles shifting between definite and indefinite?
Say they're writing a procedure for configuring a device that has two interfaces, each of which in turn has four ports. (I'm making that up, but that's generally the idea.) Do you have any tips on showing them how to select "a port" in one situation and "the port" in another?
I'm thinking of trying drawings. In this case, a diagram of a box (device) containing two smaller boxes (interfaces), each of which contains four even smaller boxes (ports), and then showing how we could talk about configuring "a device" (indefinite) by powering up "the device" (definite) and selecting "an interface" (indefinite), and then configuring "a port" (indefinite) on "the interface" (definite), and then enabling "the port" (definite), and so on. As the focus and scope change, the articles change.
Or something like that. Do you have any suggestions for concrete exercises related to problems like this? Cool tips on using diagrams to show articles shifting between definite and indefinite?