Articles Use Workshop

Corpus-Based Analysis of The Use of Articles by EFL

Students

Done by : Ms.Mashael Altamami

An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. The three main articles in the English language are 'the', 'an' and 'a'. An article is sometimes called a noun marker, although this is generally considered an archaic term. Generally, English has three types of articles: The use of these articles depends mainly on whether you are referring to any member of a group, or to a specific member of a group.

• Articles

1. Definite Article: the

• The definite article is used before singular and plural nouns when the noun is particular or specific. The signals that the noun is definite, that it refers to a particular member of a group.

Example : I go the the university everyday

2. Indefinite Articles: a and an• A and an signal that the noun modified is indefinite,

referring to any member of a group. These indefinite articles are used with singular nouns when the noun is general; the corresponding indefinite quantity word some is used for plural general nouns.

Example : I want a cake

I had an apple pie

3. Zero Article

• A zero article is the absence of an article (e.g. English indefinite plural), used in some languages in contrast with the presence of one.

Further Uses of Articles

• In addition, use of a, an, and the also depends on whether the noun following the article possesses one of these paired qualities:

1) Countable vs. Noncountable

2) First vs. Subsequent Mention

3) General vs. Specific

Countable vs. Noncountable

• A and An are used if the noun can be counted as : an apple.

• The must be used when the noun can not be counted: the bread.

First vs. Subsequent Mention

• A or An is used to introduce a noun when it is mentioned for the first time in a piece of writing. The is used afterward each time you mention that same noun.

• Example: An awards ceremony at the Kremlin would not normally have attracted so much attention. But when it was leaked that Soviet President Konstantin Chernenko would be presenting medals to three cosmonauts, interest in the ceremony intensified. Time, Sept. 17, 1984.

General vs. Specific • A, an, and the can all be used to indicate that a noun refers to

the whole class to which individual countable nouns belong. This use of articles is called generic, from the Latin word meaning "class." The difference between the indefinite a and an and the generic a and an is that the former means any one member of a class while the latter means all of the members of a class.

• The omission of articles also expresses a generic (or general) meaning:

• No article with a plural noun: Tigers are dangerous animals. (All tigers)

• no article with a non-countable noun: Anger is a destructive emotion. (Any kind of anger)

Mistakes native speakers make in the use of definate article the

• Total number of responses 312 / 100%• Number of correct uses of 'the' use is 270 which is 83.33%• Number of incorrect of 'the' use is 52 which is 16.67%• We can see that the number of correct responses is more than the

incorrect ones because there are contexts in Arabic where it is obligatory to use the Arabic definite article 'al'. The English definite article 'the' is also necessarily used in the English equivalents of such expressions .The hypothesis is that because of this similarity between LI and L2 the majority of the students in this case study are likely to use 'the' correctly.

The problem was in :• The incorrect use of the definite article 'the' can be traced back to the fact that there are

contexts in Arabic in which it is obligatory to use the Arabic definite article al but the English definite article the is not used in the English equivalents of such expressions. Because of this difference between L1and L2 the students of this case study will use the in English expressions. Based on this hypothesis, when students use 'the' incorrectly is because of this difference between L1 and L2 the majority of the students of this case study will tend to insert 'the'.

The types of errorsPercentage of mistakes• Overgeneralization is 39 which is 12. 50 %• Use of definite articles with verbs is 7 which is 2.24%• Substitution of definite article 'the' with indefinite article 'a’ is 6 which is 1.92%

Overgeneralization• Overuse of definite articles "overgeneralization" in Arabic it is

obligatory to use the Arabic definite article 'al' but the English definite article 'the' is not used in the English equivalents of such expressions. In here, it is a result of L1 Interference example: I go to the collage. As in the Arabic : إلى أذهب Another example is hajj the word can stand on it's الجامعةown and doesn’t need 'the' to define it so this is another example of over generalization.

• The are many words that can stand on their own without the use of 'the' like fruits and vegetables at the beginning of the sentence the doesn’t need 'the' like the Arabic 'al'. They are called zero article words they don’t need any articles to define it.

Substitution of definite article 'the' with indefinite article 'a’

• Use of definite articles instead of indefinite articles as in: 'It was the boring tour' ('a' should be used instead of 'the' because the tour was referred to before). 'You must visit the doctor when you need It'( 'a' should be used instead of 'the' because the writer didn’t mean a specific doctor) .This is a result of the incorrect teaching or the learners in ability to identify the difference between 'a' and 'the' because this distinction is not found in Arabic.

The use of articles with verbs

• The use of definite articles with verbs as in: 'I love the shopping'. This is also as a result of transfer from the L1 we say أنا أحب .التسٌو<ق

Results

• As illustrated in table .3 we can say that the most frequent mistakes is in overgeneralization or over use of 'the' in writing as a result of L1 negative transfer and the substitution is the least frequent as a result of the false cognate or confusion between the use of 'a' and 'the'.

Mistakes native speakers make in the use of Indefinite articles a :

• Total number of responses is 120 which is 100%• Number of correct uses of 'a' use is 97 which is 80.83%• Number of incorrect of 'a' use is 23 which is 19.17%

• we can see that the indefinite article 'a' was used more correctly because the students would make no errors in the areas which the structure of Arabic is similar to English than the incorrect usage. These misuses are common due to transfer from L1 and the mix up between the definite and indefinite articles since this distinction is not found in the Arabic 'al'.

The problem was in :

• Overgeneralization is 13 which is 10.83%• The use of 'a' instead of 'the’ is 5 which is 4.16%• The use of 'a' with places is 2 which is 1.66%• The use of 'a' with verbs is 2 which is 1.66%• The use of 'a' instead of 'an’ is 1 which is 0.83%

overgeneralization

• The overgeneralization of 'a' when it's not needed as in: The house was very small compared to a new building, Take a benefit of this experience and they use a firewood for cooking. The sentence would be correct with out it, but we can say this is a result of the interference of L1.

The use of indefinite 'a' instead of definite 'the'

• The use of indefinite 'a' instead of definite 'the' in cases such as : a windows were small and I go shopping in a weekend. As a result, of mix up between the definite and indefinite articles since this distinction is not found in the Arabic 'al'.

The use of 'a' with places

• The use of 'a' with places as in: I will go with my family tomorrow to a kingdom tower. The 'a' shouldn’t be used here it should be zero article the name of the place defines itself.

Use of ‘a’ with verbs

• The other misuse of 'a' is that when it was thought to be apart from the verb as in a wake and a fraid. This common problem that occurred with these verbs.

The use of ‘a’ instead of ‘an’ before aspirated sounds

• The use of 'a' instead of 'an' before an aspirated h as in: Being a doctor is a honorable .

The result

• we can see that the most frequent mistakes is in overgeneralization of the use of 'a' and the least frequent is the exceptional use of 'a' with aspirated h when it should be used with 'an'.

‘an’ is not used wrong that much cause the rule is clear• Schoolmaster, describes the letters a , e , i , o , and u as

the vowels of the English language. Because of this, many learners of English seem to have been taught that if a word begins with a , e , i , o , and u, it should be preceded by 'an' and not 'a' and that if a word begins with any other letter of the English alphabet, that word should be preceded by 'a' and not 'an'. That is why students used 'an' correctly all the times since they memorized the rule that it come before vowels.

Practice 1. I want ____ apple from that basket.

2. Miss Lin speaks ____ Chinese.

3. I borrowed ____ pencil from your pile of pencils and pens.

4. One of the students said, "____ professor is late today."

5. Ahmed likes to play ____ football.

6. Please give me ____ cake that is on the counter.

7. I lived on ____ Main Street when I first came to town.

8.The exam will be after ____ hour.

9. ____ ink in my pen is red.

10. Our neighbors have ____ cat and ____ dog.

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Recommendations of the study:

• Developmental factors and common learning strategies like simplification and overgeneralization were found to account for the majority of first level students who were found to do well on certain items and to have difficulty with others.

• Pay attention to when to use the articles according to the rules given previously in the slides once those rules are explained clearly mistakes will be prevented.