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Contents
Argument .......
4
Chapter I - The Noun - General Considerations
5
I.1. General principles of teaching grammar ..........
5
I.2. Principles of Communicative Language Teaching .
7
I.3. Grammar and Communicative Language Teaching ...........
8
I.4. Definition of nouns. Classifications
11
Chapter II- Countable Nouns ..........
17
II.1. Features of countable nouns .......
17
II.2.Regular plurals .........
17
II.3. Irregular plurals ..........
19
II. 4. The plural of compound nouns ....
20
II.5. Nouns with two plural forms .........
21
II.6. Collective nouns .....
22
II. 7. Modalities of teaching countable nouns .........
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II. 7.1.Teaching countable nouns deductively ........
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II. 7. 2. Teaching grammar inductively ...
30
II.8. The role of practice and classroom activities with countable nouns .......
36
Chapter III - Uncountable Nouns .......
42
III.1. Features of uncountable nouns ...
42
III.2. Classification of uncountable nouns .. . .......
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III.3. The use of partitives with uncountable nouns
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III.4. Classroom activities to teach uncountable nouns .... ........
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Chapter IV - Countable and Uncountable Nouns - a comparative view ..
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IV.1.Features of countable and uncountable nouns - comparison ..............
65
IV.2. Use of determiners ...
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IV.3. Concord with the predicate ........
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IV.4. Boundaries and non-boundaries between countable and uncountable nouns .... ......
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IV.4.1.Uncountable nouns used as countable nouns .
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IV.4.2.Usage of different words to render differences in meaning ..............
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IV.4.3.Countable nouns versus Pluralia Tantum Nouns ............
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IV. 5. Contrastive analysis
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IV.6. Lesson plan
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IV.7. Error analysis and error correction. Testing grammar ..........
86
IV.8. Consolidation activities ............
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Conclusions .....
109
Bibliography
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Alte date

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ARGUMENT

The reason for choosing this topic is related to the frequent occurrence of nouns in almost each language structure and to the fact that the usage of this part of speech involves other grammatical issues. In this respect, dealing with countability/uncountability does not mean only the classification of nouns into two categories. It also involves modalities of making up the plural in English, the usage of determiners, defective forms of some nouns, the concord of subject with the predicate.

Throughout my pedagogical career so far I have noticed that pupils have difficulties when encountering countable and uncountable nouns, not as much when they recognize them as being included in a certain type but especially when they try to integrate such nouns into sentences of their own.

This paper provides a theoretical basis for the topic as well as a practical one. Of course, grammarians dedicate a quite vast area of their works to nouns so the theory comprised here does not bring novelty elements, although I have striven to make some comparisons and to illustrate their differences in opinion when there was the case. On the other hand, I have used my experience as a teacher of English to describe examples of activities that can be carried out in the class, at a primary and at a secondary school level mostly.

Additionally, the bibliography I have consulted helped me find a more thorough insight into the communicative approach and into the relation between fluency and accuracy. It also offered a large variety of teaching methods that I have adapted for my topic. At the same time, I have tried to discover some causes of pupils’ errors and modalities of preventing or correcting errors.

Chapter I – The Noun – General Considerations

I.1. General principles of teaching grammar

Nowadays communication is the main goal for a learner who decides to take up studying a foreign language. Few choose to make this endeavour only for literature’s sake, to develop their capability of reading an author in the original or for other reasons, such as to broaden their experience or to expand their view of the world.

A modern learner needs to have the ability to encode and decode information in a direct way as one faces a variety of communicative situations. In this context, the role of foreign language education has become extremely important and teachers should be able to instruct students in this respect. This means that the language instructor should know and use the best methods and techniques in order to provide successful training.

It is obvious that at present the general focus is primarily on fluency rather than correctness, especially in every day conversation where little grammar is taken into consideration. Nevertheless, grammar remains central to the teaching and learning of languages as the ideal combination would be both a good flux of communication and accuracy.

Up to now, two major tendencies have influenced the practice of teaching foreign languages. The former leads to the view of treating grammar as a set of word forms and rules. After explaining the rules, the teacher prepares a series of drills designed to give the pupils some practice with the already learnt structures. The immediate results are sometimes boredom because of the lack of variety as well as dissatisfaction because of the possibility of making errors when students try to use the language in the context. On the other hand, some teachers choose not to teach grammar at all. They believe that the acquisition of the target language is done as in the case of pupils’ first language, so no overt grammar instruction is necessary. They assume that the students will absorb the grammar rules as they use the language in communication activities. This approach deprives students of active understanding of the way in which the language they know works.

The latter tendency mentioned above was a part of what is called the Communicative Approach or Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), developed in the 1970s. It was based on the belief that grammatical knowledge is merely one component of what theorists called communicative competence. Communicative competence involves knowing how to use the grammar and vocabulary of the language to achieve communicative goals, and knowing how to do this in a socially appropriate way. Two schools of thought tried to attain this objective, but the one led by N.S. Prahbu, a teacher of English in southern India, is considered today radical as studying the rules of grammar is not a waste a time and many specialists state the fact that grammar is an essential resource in using language communicatively.

Anyway, if little or much grammar is being presented to the pupils, there are some basic principles that the teacher should not ignore. Scott Thornbury [1 Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Grammar ( London : Longman, 2001) 25-27.] organizes them according to the following directions:

? The E-Factor: Efficiency = economy, ease and efficacy

? The A-Factor : Appropriacy

The E-Factor refers to the fact that grammar teaching should be done as efficiently as possible. This criterion of efficiency can be broken down into three factors: economy, ease and efficacy.

The principle of economy can be put like this: the shorter, the better as sometimes an excessively long training is likely to create confusion. At the same time, the teacher should be economical in terms of planning and resources.

The ease factor implies the usage of not very elaborated materials. Of course, this does not mean that the teacher should not invest time and energy in the preparation of materials – this is part of his/her commitment to the job. But the easier an activity is set up, the better it is.

Even if the efficacy is the least easy to evaluate (in spite of a large variety of tests that can be given to students), such an activity should be consistent with good learning principles. It is known that a good lesson or a good teaching process cannot directly cause learning but at least can provide the optimal conditions for it. On the other hand, the efficacy of a grammar activity requires pupils’ attention, understanding, memory and motivation.

Any classroom activity must be also evaluated according to another criterion, that of appropriacy. The teacher should take into account the following elements:

- the age of the learners;

- their level;

- the size of the group;

- pupils’ needs ( e.g. to pass a public examination etc.);

- the learners’ interests;

- the available materials and resources;

- the learners’ previous learning experience and hence present expectations;

- any cultural factors that might affect attitudes (e.g. their perception of the role and status of the teacher);

- the educational context (e.g. private or state school, at home or abroad etc.).

I.2. Principles of Communicative Language Teaching

A more balanced model of communicative competence is embraced nowadays and it emphasizes the possibility of a more efficient learning by means of an overt grammar instruction in order to accomplish defined communication tasks. Therefore, grammar becomes a tool for communicating more effectively, not an end in itself. In this context one may state that CLT does not mean the exclusion of grammar teaching. On the contrary, this process can be done in consonance with the principles of the communicative approach.

These principles can be summarised as follows [2 http://www.jasonbeale.com/essaypages/clt_essay.html

]:

? teaching is learner-centred. This leads us to the idea that grammar lessons and activities should be based on the learner’s needs and interests. As Roger Bowers remarked [3 http://www.oupnlct.com/teaching_tips/communicative_language_teaching.doc]: 'If we accept that a student will learn best what he wants to learn, less well what he only needs to learn, less well still what he neither wants nor needs to learn, it is clearly important to leave room in a learning programme for the learner's own wishes regarding both goals and processes.' As these features show, the communicative approach is concerned with the unique individual needs of each learner. In this way, learners can acquire the desired skills rapidly and agreeably.

? there is exposure to examples of authentic language from the target language community. So a communicative course uses materials that are authentic (that is, not originally intended for language teaching at all) or which simulate authenticity.