Контрольная работа: Reculiarites of Teaching English

A: Who’s he?

B: He's the president of Korea. She's the CFO. He's the mayor.

This can be contrasted with:

A: Who's she?

B: She's a member of parliament. She's an accountant. He's an alderman.

This uniqueness can come by association:

A car crashed into a tree. The driver was seriously injured.

Once we established (introduced) the car, there could only be one driver so “driver” was unique at the time of introduction and we use the driver instead of a driver. We could have rewritten this so that driver was not unique (and the car was) when it was introduced:

A driver was seriously injured when the car he was driving crashed.

A driver can only be driving one car at a time so ‘car’ is unique in this instance once driver was introduced.

This exception applies to superlatives (which are usually unique in occupying the extreme position or quality): the best place, the worst thing, the fastest runner, the tallest mountain, the most. This can be contrasted with comparatives such as a better mouse trap where several better mouse traps are possible.

This exception also applies to ordering (ordinal numbers used as adjectives) where it is presumed that the ordering is unique: the second time, the third example, the fourth person to call. In other words, once you place an order on objects they hold a unique position in that order.

This exception applies to named things (which through naming become unique):

The Rocky Mountains. (a mountain range)

The New York Islanders. (a sports team)

The Amazon River. (a river in South America)

The Pacific Ocean (An ocean)

The Steelworkers Union (an organization)

The Great Plains (a geographic locality)

The Washington Monument (a statue)

The Number Four Bus

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.