When teaching the use of definite vs indefinite articles, ESL teachers often resort to the "first mention vs second mention" rule. In this interactive cloze passage which I have created to use with students in my Language Awareness course (you can give it a try), I have taken two texts from Hung (2005) which totally defy that rule. Both texts begin with the same sentence, which is "I've bought a new car." But subsequent sentences use the definite and indefinite articles in completely different ways.
So, what is the alternative to relying on often over-simplified grammar rules? To me, the answer is always this: Language Awareness training.
Hung, T. T. N. (2005). Understanding English grammar : a course book for Chinese learners of English. Hong Kong : Hong Kong University Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment