ARTICLES ARE NOUN-FOCUSSING WORDS
Khaliqur Rahman
INTRODUCTION
We’ve taught English at SECC (short for Spoken English Club & Clinic) for well over two decades. During this period we’ve learnt a lot, as well. We have been able to develop a Pedagogic Grammar and we’ve found it to be very effective in bringing home a grammar point in the minds of the Learners.
They are made to understand that Grammar is the sum total of Core Grammar and Peripheral Grammar. Core Grammar is nothing but what goes with what and what replaces what and Peripheral Grammar is how, when and where. Also, making a sentence is like choosing clothes and dressing up, taking care of what goes with what, what replaces what and then the finishing touch of how, when and where. All this is demonstrated with the help of short video- audio lessons, at the end of which they finish the one hour class giving Introduction and Description, their own and introductions and descriptions of their peers.
Here, we’d like to share with you one of our lessons in the use of Articles. Through examples on the blackboard, interaction and recall, we manage to get from them statements like:
Articles are words that go with nouns that are naming words. The Indefinite Article goes with a noun that is countable and singular. The Definite Article can go with all the three categories of a noun: countable singular, countable plural and uncountable. Sometimes, we have to make a statement ourselves when we know it is beyond them, particularly with our deft-nitions. For example: Articles are noun-focussing words. They bring nouns into focus. The definite article the, pronounced ðɪ or ðə,
brings nouns into fine focus. The indefinite articles a and an bring a noun, countable, singular into broad focus.
Grammar Rules thus are discovered by the Learners themselves, of course with the minimum-maximum pushing and prodding by the Teacher. We’ll now enter into the main thrust of the discussion.
TECHNICAL TERMS vs PLAIN LANGUAGE
We use what goes with what for syntagmatic relationship and what replaces what for paradigmatic relationship. For mid-level Learners, we use chain relationship and choice relationship, for syntagmatic relationship and paradigmatic relationship, respectively.
FOCUSSING WORDS
This is our attempt to take care of the use of the generic/specific dichotomies and replace the terms generic/specific with the concept of focussing. Let’s look at these instances of language use:
What do you do? I am a teacher. Oh, well, one of you here has won the President’s award! O yes, I am happy to tell you, I am the teacher!
When he says I am a teacher. He is asking you to focus your mind on teachers and not on lawyers or doctors or engineers and he is one of teachers not engineers, etc. The noun teacher is thus brought into broad focus.
When he says I am the teacher, he is asking you to change your broad focus on teachers to fine focus on one teacher (That’s him.).
If someone says The first three teachers in the list have won prizes, again, the speaker wants fine focus on the first three from the broad focus on all the teachers in that list..
Similarly, when you say Bring me the water in the fridge, you mean not any water but that water in that fridge. Fine focus.
CHOICE OF A OR AN
In most school textbooks, the rule is: words beginning with a e i o u take an, by which it should be possible to say an after*, an eat*, an it*, an often*, and an under*.
Our rule Indefinite Article ( A or An ) goes with noun countable singular not only clinches the issue but also motivates them to learn more rules like this.
The Learners in general are not familiar with the Sounds of English as in most schools in India, they start with the Alphabet. We, therefore, introduce the sounds with the help of audios and now with the British Council phonemic chart and ask the Learners to keep learning them with patience and practice. Now they know the difference between sounds and letters and have come to know for the first time that there are 20 vowel sounds in English.
Now they realise it is easier for them to discover that an goes with a vowel sound and a with a consonant sound. They are thrilled, with a sense of relief, to realise that they won’t have to cope with a long list of exceptions to this rule! Moreover, they discover and learn the whole pattern: that along with an, to is , r is and the is before a vowel sound, but before a consonant sound, along with a, r is silent, to is and the is .
They do like and enjoy the statement of the rule that has examples of the rule built into them:
r is pronounced only before a vowel
r’s are pronounced only before vowels
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