Peter Master

The English Article System: Acquisition, Function, and Pedagogy.

Abstract This paper describes the acquisition, frequency, and function of the English articles (a, the, and O—the zero article). It explains the two types of zero article (zero and null) and shows how these occur in alternation with a and the. It then provides a framework for the presentation of the articles in the classroom at the three general levels of beginning, intermediate, and advanced proficiency.

Information Structure and English Article Pedagogy.

Abstract This paper describes several reasons for the difficulty non-native speakers of English have in acquiring the English article system and reviews five pedagogical methods for teaching the article system. The notion of information structure, specifically givenness, is then applied to a sample text to examine the extent to which canonical information structure (i.e. given information first, new information last) is obeyed. Given information was found to adhere to canonical structure most of the time, whereas new information adhered to it only half of the time, though within a narrow range of exceptions. The results of a pilot study in which one group of non-native English speakers is taught the article system using information structure as an overarching framework, another is taught using a traditional explanation of article use, and a third receives no instruction show that the group taught with the information structure framework made small but noticeable improvement compared to the other two groups. The suggested pedagogical application is for language teachers to present canonical information structure as a preliminary guess in determining the appropriate article for any noun, providing a further potential aid in learning the article system.

Teaching the English Articles as a Binary System

The English article system can be taught as a binary division between classification (a and 0) and identification (the). All the other elements of article usage can be understood within this framework, allowing a one form/one function correspondence for a and the. Furthermore, the notions of classification and identification can be introduced as distinct concepts before the various rules for article usage are taught. This simplified schema is presented as a pedagogical tool for selecting the appropriate article, a universally acknowledged difficulty for nonnative speakers of English.

Active verbs with inanimate subjects in scientific prose

Abstract The use of active verbs with inanimate subjects (e.g., A thermometer measures temperature) is a prevalent phenomenon in scientific prose. However, many students, particularly those whose first language is an Asian one, find it difficult if not impossible to use an active verb with an inanimate subject in writing English because they find it unacceptably anthropomorphic. English speakers do not interpret such a structure anthropomorphically because English allows active verbs with inanimate subjects only when the verb is an inherent aspect or function of that subject. The present study analyzes 2979 subject-verb pairs from Science News to determine the relative frequency of inanimate subjects with active verbs. The results suggest that inanimate subjects with active verbs are more prevalent than inanimate subjects with passive verbs, especially when the subject is abstract. Active verbs with inanimate subjects were found to have two major functions: to show causality and to explain. Since EST students with Japanese, Chinese, Thai, and certain other native language backgrounds evince frequent errors in using this structure, suggestions are made for teaching inanimate subjects with active verbs and the bounds of English anthropomorphism in scientific writing.

Generic the in scientific American

The use of generic the and its alternatives 0 and a(n) is investigated at a range of discourse levels in a series of articles from Scientific American. Generic the was found to occur less frequently than generic 0 but much more frequently than generic a(n). It was the most likely of the three generic articles to occur with noun phrases in subject position. It was more likely to be found in the first sentence of a paragraph than in the last, and it was more likely to be found in introductions and conclusions than elsewhere. Finally, generic thewas more likely than a(n) or 0 to mark the topic of a scientific essay and other NPs that contribute to the authors argument. These usages appear to reflect the apparent focused, causal nature of generic the, in contradistinction to the more descriptive generic 0 and a(n).

The Etiquette of Observing

The relationship between teacher and students is a highly personal one. For this reason, an observer, particularly an administrative one, can be an invasive presence. The responsibility lies on the observer to minimize this effect by consciously adopting a courteous and non-threatening demeanor.

On-line nominal compound formation in an experimental pidgin

Data from a pair of experimental pidgins, artificial spoken languages with no a priori established syntactic norms, provide a picture of the mechanism by which nominal compounds may be formed in natural languages. It describes how the discourse pressure to economize operates on a lexical string denoting a specific object to delete noun, verb and adjective structures from that string until mostly noun structures remain. Nouns were thus prioritized by the discourse process.