Dear teachers from English-speaking countries and born with English! :)

 

The topic is surely not new and has probably been raised lots of times but still ... All of us are perfectly aware that articles for those who learn English as a secondary foreign language in so many cases are merely senseless combinations of sounds, i.e. they fail to deeply understand what grammatical meaning they bear in a concrete situation. This problem is actual for, I guess, both those who are still elementary learners and even advenced level studetns whose speech is fluent enough but, yet, lacks for articles... as, you know, while they �re thinking what to say next, they don �t even feel the necessity to use a modifier before, say, a singular noun mentioned for the first time.

 

So, my question is as follows: does the ignorance of articles in English make our speech really weird and unnatural to the ear of a native speaker? Do native speakers use them intuitively rather than applying any special grammar rules? Can we completely skip them without influencing the meaning of what we want so say much? Finally, what are your thoughts about, how to put it right, teachers � attempts to put our students in milder conditions and disregard their mistakes in the use of "a" and "the"?

 

Awfully sorry for so many questions, but the point of articles has been troubling me recently for an unknown reason 

 

Thank you for your answers! 

Hi niksailor, well I will answer one or two of your questions, but not all! Native speakers do use the article intuitively; we do not need to think about it at all. I think some of us find the omission of the article funny and endearing, even. My Polish friend has a very high level of English but recently she said to me �I bought new car yesterday. �  I think, over many sentences, if the article is constantly omitted, it does sound unnatural, although I don �t think it affects comprehension... I once gave a teacher training session to my colleagues, when we were getting a lot of students from eastern Europe. One exercise was for them to replace the missing articles - easy-peasy! The next was for them to explain why the article (or no article!) was needed. I wanted to show how difficult this was for eastern Europeans, particularly. Oh dear - not a clue! They didn �t have the first idea! As for how to help students get them right - I �m afraid I never bothered and hoped they would pick it up by osmosis, so I can �t help you there. Here is the passage I presented to my colleagues, just out of interest.

the article 

 

I can add that the lack of articles immediately identifies the speaker as non-native, but I wouldn �t say that it sounds weird. Articles do significantly affect meaning, so they are an important part of our complicated language. If I said, "I tried a new kind of tea," you would ask me questions about it, so you could determine if you wanted to try it, too. If I said, "I tried the new kind of tea," the definite article indicates that we have discussed this tea, so you would probably ask, "Did you like it?". That is one example of the significance of articles.

 

Because their use is somewhat complicated, I don �t think it is necessary to put much effort into correcting beginning students when they misuse or don �t use them, but from the intermediate level up, it would be good to get the students trained.

 

Bruce 

Bruce is right, of course. Using the article brings an extra layer of meaning. I really meant funny, rather than weird, but that �s because I �ve been influenced by �Lead Balloon �. Here is a little excerpt. 

Lead Balloon - Magda.  

I can see arguements for both sides. Articles do add some meaning to the phrase. This makes them important. However, using the wrong article ("the" instead of "a", "an" instead of "the") can take some information away from the sentence.

 

For example:

"I went to the store." --> This means you went to your usual store. This is the same store you always go to when you need to buy something.

"I went to a store." --> This could to any store, so the listener will ask questions about it such as, "What kind of store?" and "What was the name of the store?

When people omit articles, native listeners usually have a mental image of cavemen. "I went to store. I bought big stick. Big stick is good stick for pi�ata." Native listeners might think the person lacks intelligence; however, they will still understand the information with no issues. (The native speaker would have said, "I went to the store. I bought a big stick. The big stick is a good stick for a pi�ata)

If your students truly are struggling with articles to the point where they cannot progress further in their English studies, then omiting all adjectives can boost their confidence and allow them to continue. Native speakers will understand them. However, it will sound unusual and may cause insult to your students` intelligence. This being said, I have met brilliant people (nonnative speakers of English) who lead scientific research projects or teach at universities yet still make mistakes using articles. No one doubts their intelligence if they know the person �s job or have heard their opinions on difficult topics.

My recommendation is that you continue to teach articles ("a/an" for general / nonspecific objects and "the" for specific objects). However, if you have them not use articles, your job becomes much easier and people will still understand them. They will also still be able to pass standardized English tests. The negative side is that your students will not be respected as well for omiting articles.

 

 

Aperkins4, I agree with your caveman comment, if the tone of the speech matches the mentality of a [primitive] caveman. However, the tone can convey hesitancy or any number of modalities in an intelligent person.

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