Explaining the use of "The" and 'a' to Japanese ESL students.

[Emoni]

Hello everyone. Have a very DIFFICULT question that may not be possible to answer on a forums, but maybe someone could at least point me in the direction of grammar books, or tips on how to do this. (Sorry if this is in the wrong section of the forum too, but seemed right).

I have a person who I am trying to find a way to explain the correct use of "the" and 'a' too. When it is needed, when you use the others, when not to use it... Being a native speaker, I have no ability to explain the grammar or even why and when not to use it. I plan to teach in the JET program in 2 years, so this is a problem I really want to learn how to explain well, maybe a few JET program guys on the boards know a way to go about explaining this. The person I am trying to explain it to is quite good with English at this point, and very verbal, but this is their one major problem still and I want to help them get past it.

Thanks for any advice at all.

 

[Kinsao]

Hmmm, I'm not the best, but I'll put my head on the block...

It seems that 'the' tends to be used to refer to something more specific, whereas 'a' is used for something more general. Of course, it's not hard-and-fast... It's like you say, "pass me the salt please" you are meaning that object there, but if you say "put a pinch of salt in it" you are just talking generally, I mean it doesn't matter exactly what salt!

Probably I don't make much sense... and there are difficult circumstances too where we miss out 'a' or 'the', like if you say "I'm going to town" you don't say "I'm going to the town" even though that also makes sense.

And there are some times when it works the other way around. I think I don't enlighten you at all... I even confused myself...

 

[Pachipro]

I'll lay my head on the block also.This was also a difficult problem I had while teaching back in the day. I hope I can make myself clear here. I used to explain it thus:

Let's go see a movie.
Here I would explain that the 'a' in this case means that we would go to see any movie we could both (or all) decide on

Let's go see the movie. (we decided on)
Here I would explain that in this case 'the' would indicate the movie we talked about seeing or the one we decided on seeing.

Sometimes I had to explain it in Japanese like this:
Eiga o mi ni ikimasho. (Let's go see a movie) 窶ｰf窶ｰﾃｦ窶堙ｰﾅ陳ｩ窶堙可行窶堋ｫ窶堙懌?堋ｵ窶堙･窶堋､ﾂ。
Anno eiga o mi ni ikimashou. (Let's go see the (that) movie we talked about (or decided on) 窶堋?窶堙娯?ｰf窶ｰﾃｦ窶堙ｰﾅ陳ｩ窶堙可行窶堋ｫ窶堙懌?堋ｵ窶堙･窶堋､ﾂ。 I would explain that in this case 'ano' would mean 'the' in English.

In a case like this, speaking Japanese seemed to help them understand it a little better. This is why I am totally against the speaking of JApanese while teaching English in Japan. Sometimes an explaination in their own language is warranted.

Sometimes it took lengthy explainations and whether they really understood it I don't know. Some seemed to get it (or at least pretended that they did) while most didn't. I further explained that mastery of these articles would only come from practice and actually speaking the language for a long time.

When speaking of things such as milk, salt, bread, water, paper, or other uncountable items I explained that if one wanted a glass of milk and said, "Please give me the milk", they would probably receive the container of milk. I explained that 'uncountables' needed a modifier (if that is the word. I don't remember) such as a glass (of milk), a piece (of bread), a scoop (of ice cream) etc.

These are simple explainations I know, but you will discover that 'a' and 'the' will crop up quite often in your teaching of ESL. Try and think of how you use them in everyday speech and try to relay that to your students. Hope this helps.

 

[Emoni]

Thank you VERY much guys, this is a good start

 

[Davey]

Dont really know about this, but i am going to take an ESL course after this summer, with Extra grammer lessons in it.. something for you?

http://www.onlinetefl.com/

 

[Maciamo]

I recommend Raymond Murphy's English Grammar in Use for a complete and clear explanation (7 units in total only for "a" and "the"). It gives the general rules. For example, some words usually take "the", such as after "go to" (go to the dentist, go to the bank, go to the doctor...) or when there is only one of that kind (the Earth, the Moon...) or only one in that context/place (the floor, the ceiling, the light...). Some always take "a", such as people's job (he is a doctor, she is an accountant, etc.).

It also explains the difference between "the" and no article, as in "go to school" (as a student), or "go to the school" (to the building), "go to prison" (as a prisoner) or "go to the prison" (as a visitor), etc.

Then they explained when to use "the" with place names. For instance, why don't we use "the" in front of a country name ("France", not "the France"), but we say 'The United States", "the Bahamas" or "The Netherlands" (because they are plural). Usually geographic areas (mountain ranges, rivers, seas, etc.) take "the", but not mounts and lakes (Mount Fuji, Lake Biwa...). There is much more and exercises for the 7 units, so if you really want to explain that clearly (and all Japanese people need it, even the most advanced English speakers), you need this book. In any case, if you want to become a teacher in Japan you will need it, as it covers all the English grammar for students from high-beginner to advanced.

 

[deadhippo]

heres my two yen

you usually use the when there is only one of something
that could be one in the universe, one in the country or one in the room
basically anywhere
that said you can understand that we use the for the 1st, the 2nd, the last, the best etc. as there is only one

EXAMPLES
the moon (only one circling the earth)
the salt (only one salt on the table, or near you)

we also use the when we believe the other person knows what we are talking about or we think he will understand

so linked to above we use the when it the second time to talk about something

EXAMPLE
i bought a pen and a pencil
the pen cost 1 dollar and the pencil cost 50 cents

other examples of the

mountain ranges, groups of islands as mentiones above
so we say the himalayas (the himlayan mountains)
but mount everest being only one mountain does not

names dont usually take the but their are afew examples as mentioned above in someone elses post

ill add more info when i have time

 

[lexico]

These are three reference books for looking up all about English grammar if you already have Raymond Murphy's Essential grammar in Use, but still need many, many more details. (in the order of older to newer)

1. A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language
by Randolph Quirk, Jan Svartvik, Geoffry Leech, Sidney Greenbaum,
Hardcover: 1779 pages
Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company (May 1, 1985)
ISBN: 0582517346

If you use English, and you have ever had a question on grammar that wasn't answered to your satisfaction, you need to get this book.

The _Comprehensive Grammar_ is an expanded and revised version of a series of grammars first published in 1972 (starting with _A Grammar of Contemporary English_.) Since its publication, this book has been *the* standard reference work used by professional grammarians. It is a scholarly, descriptive account of English based on extensive analysis of real usage. It is particularly strong in the way that it stresses the communicative functions of English...the basic framework for this book was laid down in the 1960s, it does not reflect much of the research that has occurred since...In 2002, however, Huddleston and Pullum brought out their _Cambridge Grammar of the English Language_, which is destined to supplant Quirk, et al. as the standard reference...The _Comprehensive Grammar_ remains very useful if you need to see examples of various structures, and to provide a complementary view to Huddleston and Pullum.

2. Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English
by Douglas Biber, Stig Johansson, Geoffrey Leech, Susan Conrad, Edward Finegan
Hardcover: 1203 pages
Publisher: Pearson ESL; 1st edition (November 5, 1999)
ISBN: 0582237254

descriptive grammar of the English language. A few months ago I compared several English grammars side-by-side, and this was one of the top two, the other being Quirk et al.'s far more [costly]work. In general, every construction is discussed in terms of a grammatical analysis (theory-neutral), quantitative analysis, and a functional analysis of the quantitative results....This work redefines the English language. Working with a corpus of more than 40 million words, the authors conform every important grammatical point of the English language with its frequency in British and American speaking and writing.

3. The Cambridge Grammar of the English Language
by Rodney D. Huddleston, Geoffrey K. Pullum
Hardcover: 1860 pages
Publisher: Cambridge University Press (April 15, 2002)
ISBN: 0521431468

If you feel more comfortable with descriptive grammar with frequency data to quantify observed patterns, nothing beats 2. GSWE. If you feel little need of frequency data but prefer the more traditional style of qualitative grammar, go with 3. The CGEL. If you have a library nearby, I'd say browse thru all three, and you will get whatever detail you need that's been studied upto 2002. These will completely complement Raymond Murphy.

 

[lexico]

An article is a determiner; it follows a fixed word order

This part looks a bit complicated, so use it for word order considerations only.

An article, either the, a, or zero article, belongs to the class of words called determiners. As such it comes at the beginning of a noun phrase, but before the adjective + noun sequence. Determiners specify the reference of a noun, and by order of appearance, is subdivided into three subclasses;

(1) predeterminers: (quantifiers) all (of), both (of), eachv(of), every, many (of), much (of), more (of), most, a lot of, some (of), a little (of), a few (of), few (of), any(of), either (of), no, none of, neither (of), (multipliers) half, 1/3, double, triple, once, twice, etc.
(2) central determiners:
......(2a) articles: the, a, zero-article......(2b) demonstratives: this, that, these, those,
......(2c) possessives: my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their
(3) post determiners:
......(3a) semi-determiners: same, other, former, latter, first, last, next, following
......(3b) ordinals: first, second, third, etc,
......(3c) cardinals: one, two, three, (quantifiers)

The sequence of words in a noun phrase can be expressed formally;

(predeterminer (central determiner (post determiner(s) (adjective head-noun)))), for example
ALL-THE-OTHER-THREE-JAPANESE-GIRLS would be a naturally occurring English noun phrase. Some exceptions to this word order are (1) 'other' following cardinal numbers as in 'two other projects,' 'many other people'; or quantifiers if there is/can be an 'of,' the quantifier and the 'the' will reverse order as in 'all/some/much (of) the money,' 'all/some/many (of) the girls.'

nb: Although the prescribed position for (quantifiers) is at the end of all determinrs, as in 'I licked the last few drops of whiskey out of the bottle,' the bulk of quantifiers come at the the predeterminer position. Hence I moved examples of qualtifiers in the list up to (1) predeterminers. Originally (1) predeterminers had only 'all, both, and half' in Longman GWSE p. 258.

 

[lexico]

Indefinite Article: a, an

An indefinite article can have the following properties and usages.

1. comes before singular countable nouns.
2. hence has the sense of one.
3. also has the sense of unspecific.

e.g. If you need a friend, just call~ me.

4. hence often used to introduce one new specific entity of its class; be it in the position of subject of a verb(1), object of a verb(2), or a complement/object of a preposition(3).

e.g. A man(1) had a cat(2) in a cage(3).

Of course, once introduced with the indefinite article a, all subsequent references to the entity that is now clearly understood by the two parties, will employ either the definite article the or the personal pronoun.

e.g. A cat got shot by an evil woman with a bb-gun. The cat ran off crying in pain. A good Samaritan teenager found it unconscious. The teenager took out the pellet. Luckily it hadn't penetrated into any vital organs. Her wound healed in about a week. This is how we got the story of "The Good Samaritan."

e.g. One night a miserly millionaire fell into a ditch walking in his unlit back yard.

The non-specific entities just introduced in there examples are on the verge of becoming a specific entity; which is indicated by the use of the definite article the.

5. is used to classify an entity.

e.g. I am a lexicographer.

6. is used to represent the genera/class/species by one entity generically.

e.g. A cat is said to have 9 lives.
e.g. The cat species can be called either 'a cat,' 'the cat,' or simply 'cats.'

 

[lexico]

A Definite Article

can come before any noun, countable and uncountable. It has the following definitions and usages. It tells that the noun phrase is referring to a referent that is known (or assumed to be known) to both the speaker and the hearer. This assumed knowledge of 'what they are talking about' comes from a number of different possible sources.

1. anaphoric reference: the knowledge comes from what has been said earlier;
e.g. A cat.... the cat.... its...it.

2. indirect anaphoric reference: the entity being referred to hasn't been said earlier, but the knowledge is inferred from some other related entity that's been said and certain pragmatic knowledge that makes it posslble to assume the reference as a known;
e.g. A car... the vehicle... the back trunk.

3. cataphoric reference: when the knowledge comes from words in the same sentence but apprearing after the definite article itself, usually a post modifier of the noun;
e.g. Years of failed crop caused the starvation in the tens of millions.
e.g. The Day the Earth Stopped Moving
e.g. The environmental chaos in the years to come

4. situational reference: The knowledge can also come from the common situational context shared by the speaker and the hearer.
e.g. Somebody get the phone !
e.g. That the government can do anyone !

The shared situational context could be either (1) the immediate speech act environment or the larger shared context s.a. common knowledge of the speaker-hearer. A discrepancy in the perception that had been assumed non-contradictory, when proven wrong, can result in a misunderstanding, conflict, or failure in common endeavor unless corrected immediately or find some other solution later. The hearer or speaker would usually notice the problem and put it right by a quick question. Which ... ?

5. inferential referencing


6. tacit referencing

 

[misa.j]

I think I often screw those up. I still have a hard time determining if I should use 'the' or 'a' or neither especially when the noun is plural and not visible.

My method of learning is paying attention how native speakers are using them, but I think the book Maciamo mentioned will help me a lot.
Thanks for the reccomendation and your explanation.

 

[pipokun]

how about eating a chicken in front of your students?
A book enlighted me when it explained chicken/a chicken before.

One of the reasons would be...
In English=>pen, a pen, pens, the pen, and the pens
In Japanese=>ﾆ馳ﾆ停?

I really want the answer if any...

 

[Emoni]

Wow, thanks very much Lexico.