2.2 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:
a) 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.
b) a phrase fork
bus
to travel by car
boat
c) 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.
2.3 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.
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