Explaining articles

Malcolm   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?
Deborah   Thursday, March 10, 2005, 22:36 GMT
<<and selecting "an interface" (indefinite), and then configuring "a port" (indefinite) on "the interface" (definite), and then enabling "the port" (definite)>>

Where the indefinite article is used in this example, it's because "interface" and "port" have not yet been identified. Once they have been identified (the interface that is being selected, the port that is being configured), the definite article is used.

The first mention of a noun can also take the definite article if it is identified elsewhere in the sentence: "The door on the right leads to the street."
Deborah   Thursday, March 10, 2005, 22:42 GMT
Hmm - bad example. Now I have to explain why "street" takes the definite article!

Actually, it's a test -- who knows why "street" takes the definite article?
Chamonix   Friday, March 11, 2005, 00:45 GMT
Deborah,

"The door on the right leads to the street".

I think it's because we know which street we are talking about, I meantwe refer to a particular street to which that particular door leads to.

Or using the indefinite article:

Any door leads to a street= Referring in general to doors and street.
Ved   Friday, March 11, 2005, 02:00 GMT
Malcolm, I don't know if this helps at all, but there is a rule that covers a vast number of cases. I refer to it as "the biggest rule of English" in my class. Many of my students have first languages that have no articles at all. Polish is, (unfortunately for you) one of these languages. For these students, it is quite hard to understand the very concept of an article and they often struggle with realising why these are at all necessary.

So, here is what I keep repeating to my students: "A countable, singular noun must never stand alone." This means that there must be a determiner (a, the, my, your, Steven's, this, that...) before it, or before any adjectives that precede it. I also tell them that there are exceptions to this rule and I teach these bit by bit. However, this is the first thing any student of English being introduced to articles should know. I can't imagine launching into an explanation of the many intricacies of article usage before making this very basic rule really clear and reinforcing it over weeks of study, whenever there is an opportunity.

I write and post this rule all over the place, repeat it to my students, dance and march to it... Everything short of using a rope-and-pulley system (available at an "Obsessive Teachers R Us" near you) to dangle outside their kitchen windows, holding a placard with the text "A countable singular noun must never stand alone" written on it.