LUCRARE METODICO-ȘTIINȚIFICĂ PENTRU OBȚINEREA GRADULUI DIDACTIC I COORDONATOR ȘTIINȚIFIC, Lector univ. dr. PISOSCHI CLAUDIA GABRIELA CANDIDAT, Prof…. [302993]

[anonimizat] I

[anonimizat]: [anonimizat]. TOANĂ (NICOLAE) ELENA-CLAUDIA

Școala Gimnazială TĂLPAȘ

Jud. DOLJ

SERIA 2016 – 2018

UNIVERSITATEA DIN

FACULTATEA DE LITERE

THE ROLE OF L1 IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING:

COUNTABILITY AND CONCORD RULES IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN

(ROLUL LIMBII 1 ÎN PREDAREA LIMBILOR STRĂINE: CATEGORIA NUMĂRULUI ȘI ACORDUL ÎN LIMBILE ENGLEZĂ ȘI ROMÂNĂ)

[anonimizat]: [anonimizat]. TOANĂ (NICOLAE) ELENA CLAUDIA

Școala Gimnazială TĂLPAȘ

Jud. DOLJ

SERIA 2016 – 2018

ACORD

Subsemnatul(a), [anonimizat]. univ. dr. [anonimizat], [anonimizat] I, elaborată de TOANĂ (NICOLAE) [anonimizat], [anonimizat] , cu titlul THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE 1 IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING: COUNTABILITY AND CONCORD RULES IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN.

[anonimizat],

Lector univ.dr. Claudia Gabriela Pisoschi 21.07.2017

[anonimizat] (NICOLAE) [anonimizat], [anonimizat], jud. Dolj ,declar pe propria răspundere că lucrarea cu titlul THE ROLE OF LANGUAGE 1 IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING: [anonimizat], a fost elaborată personal pe baza studierii bibliografiei de specialitate, a experienței personale și îmi aparține în întregime. [anonimizat], [anonimizat], fără a fi citate și fără a [anonimizat] o reprezintă alte lucrări ale candidat: [anonimizat].

Data, Semnătura candidat: [anonimizat],

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Argument/Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………………………..1

Chapter 1. English nouns as a morphological class……………………………………..…3

1.1.Grammatical categories specific to English nouns……………………………………………..3

Number……………………………………………………………………3

Gender…………………………………………………………………….4

Case……………………………………………………………………….6

Determination……………………………………………………………11

1.2.Morphology and semantics. The relationship

between form and meaning with nouns………………………………………………………12

1.2.1. Countability in English. Count vs. uncount nouns. The relativity

of classification criteria……………………………………………………………………….12

1.2.2. [anonimizat]……………………13

1.3. Morphology and syntax…………………………………………………………………..17

1.3.1. Concord in English. [anonimizat]…………………………..…17

1.3.2. Countability and concord……………………………………………………23

Chapter 2.Teaching nouns as a grammar topic. Methodological approaches………..…26

2.1. General considerations………………………………………………………………..….26

2.2. Teaching nouns as a grammar topic…………………………………………………..….27

2.2.1 [anonimizat].……………………….33

2.2.2. Teaching concord NP-VP in English………………………………………..…35

2.3. Methods of teaching countability and concord. A textbook analysis………………………..37

Chapter 3. Integrating formalism and functionalism in teaching

countability and concord………………………………………………………………..…43

3.1. Teaching grammar……………………………………………………………………….43

3.2. General aim and specific objectives……………………………………………………..43

3.3. Case Study………………………………………………………………………………44

3.3.1. Participants…………………………………………………………….44

3.3.2. Material…………………………………………………………………44

3.3.3. Procedure………………………………………………………………45

3.3.4 Data collection and analysis.……………………………………………54

3.4. Stages of the case study………………………………………………………………….54

3.4.1. The pretest stage…………………………………………………………………………..54

3.4.1.1. The pre-test. Objectives and comments on its structure……………………………..54

3.4.1.2. Pre-test results. Their analysis……………………………………………………….58

3.4.2.The teaching stage………………………………………………………………………..60

3.4.2.1. The traditional/formalist method applied in teaching English nouns………………………………………………………………………………………….66

3.4.2.2. The modern/functionalist method applied in teaching English nouns………………………………………………………………………………………….68

3.4.3. The Post-test stage……………………………………………………………………….71

3.4.3.1. The post test. Description and comments on its structure……………………………………………………………………………………….71

3.4.3.2. Post-test results. Their analysis………………………………………………………74

3.4.4. Pre-test vs. Post-test……………………………………………………78

3.4.5. Conclusions…………………………………………………………………………………80

Conclusions………………………………………………………………………………………………………………82

Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….83

Appendixes……………………………………………………………………………………………………………….84

Argument

”Learning another language is not only learning different words for the same things, but learning another way to think about things.”

Flora Lewis (American journalist 1922-2002)

Over the years English has gained the status of a “universal” language, with a great role in daily life in the world; its influence and spread is considered to outpace any other language.

Learning English has become a somehow mandatory tool if we want to succeed in our society. Young children have been studying it from an early age getting accustomed to it by the time they start school. Parents and teachers try to facilitate the process of learning English so that children come to acquire it in a natural way rather than see it as something they have to learn.

Grammar plays an essential role in the acquisition of English being the ‘binder’ of a language, the one which organizes the words and helps the speaker render a certain message. Without it, language would be a total chaos. Both oral and written communication but especially the latter depend on accurate grammar usage. We can safely say that, if with oral communication speakers can use alternative ways of rendering the message, in the case of written communication accurate grammar is of the upmost importance. Poor grammar can lead to confusing or even completely wrong, messages between people.

Grammar teaching has moved on from focusing solely on the traditional/formalist method to relying more on the modern/functionalist one. A great role in this process has been played by Michael Halliday’s and Noam Chomsky’s theories which have made foreign language teachers come to the conclusion that their aim should be to endow the students with a kind of linguistic competence similar to that of the native speakers of the language. Therefore grammar should be taught in context since in the real world language does not occur in isolated sentences, but in a continuous flow, a logically connected string of words or sentences; linguistic studies have shown that people use the language in a much more complex way than the dictionary or grammar rules state.

When I chose the theme for my paper I considered that nouns, mainly countability and concord rules, were not dealt with adequately in the English books for learners of second foreign language. They were presented very briefly creating room for a lot of misinterpretations and errors in using them. This is why teachers have to come up with different additional materials in order to present countability and concord rules so that students understand the differences between English and Romanian.

The objective of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of using traditional and modern methodologies in teaching countability and concord and whether the two can be applied at the elementary level to promote the acquisition of English nouns.

The paper is structured in three chapters.

The first chapter represents the theoretical part of the paper, in which I presented nouns as a morphological class as well as the relationship between morphology and semantics and morphology and syntax in what nouns are concerned.

In the second chapter, I discussed the methodological aspects of teaching nouns as a grammar topic focusing on countability and concord. I also analysed the unit referring to the topic under discussion in the students’ coursebook, so as to show that, unless additional materials are used, students are unlikely to understand countability and concord in a proper way.

In the third chapter I did a case study on integrating formalism and functionalism in teaching countability and concord. I presented the advantages of an integrative perspective and its application in textbooks; the experiment consisted in applying an integrative teaching perspective, assessing and interpreting the results. The purpose of the study is to establish the effectiveness of using traditional and modern methodologies in teaching countability and concord, to investigate which methodology can be applied better to improve students’ acquisition of English nouns.

Since teaching grammar plays an important role in learning a foreign language, in this part of my paper I wanted to underline the results of the experiment. From the beginning, the main goal is to teach the English nouns (countability and concord) to two groups of students from different classes, with almost the same level of linguistic competence, by using traditional methodology and modern methodology, respectively. I attached a sample lesson plan and the tests used in the research −a pre-test and a post-test and their keys.

CHAPTER 1

ENGLISH NOUNS AS A MORPHOLOGICAL CLASS

1.1. GRAMMATICAL CATEGORIES SPECIFIC TO ENGLISH NOUNS

A noun can be defined as a part of speech denoting a thing (pen), beings – animals and people (cat, Tom) and abstract things – names of jobs (manager), states (happiness), or qualities (wisdom).

The grammatical categories specific to English nouns are: number, gender, case and determination. As opposed to Romanian, English is a predominantly analytical language and, some categories are not always explicitly marked. First of all, determination is never marked by a grammatical suffix, but by a grammatical word: a/an or the.

In the example below, the formal marker of number can also indicate gender (masculine) and case (Nominative) as a result of the word order in the sentence:

The ambassadors were welcomed in the conference room.

Number

Generally speaking, in any language singular means one and plural means more than one. The general rule of making up plural nouns in English is by adding –s or –es to the singular form both with simple or compound nouns (car-cars, book-books). However, there are two categories of English nouns- regular nouns and irregular nouns- when it comes to plural forms. Apart from these, there are the foreign plurals which have kept their original plural form or have been partially absorbed into English. We can observe the following rules concerning the plural of English nouns, both regular and irregular:

Nouns ending in –y preceded by a vowel, simply follow the rule of adding –s (boy-boys, day-days) whereas nouns ending in –y preceded by a consonant, change–y into –ie and then add –s (nationality-nationalities, spy-spies).

Nouns ending in – s, -ss-, -sh, -ch, -x add –es (box-boxes, torch-torches)

Nouns ending in –o preceded by a vowel, add –s (portfolio-portfolios, studio-studios); also abbreviations (kilo-kilos, photo-photos), musical instruments (piano-pianos) and proper nouns (Eskimo-Eskimos). When –o is preceded by a consonant, the suffix –es is added (hero-heroes, potato-potatoes)

Most nouns ending in –f or –fe get –ves when used in the plural (thief-thieves, loaf-loaves). There are some nouns that simply add –s (proof-proofs, roof-roofs).

Some English nouns have irregular plurals: child-children, man-men, woman-women, mouse-mice, ox-oxen,etc.

Compound nouns add –s or –es to the second noun if the compound consists of two nouns (armchair-armchairs), to the noun if the compound consists of an adjective and a noun (frying pan-frying pans), to the first noun if the compound consists of two nouns connected with a preposition (editor-in-chief – editors-in-chief, passer-by – passers-by), at the end of the compound if this is not made up of any nouns (drawback-drawbacks) when the first element of the compound is the word: man, woman, lord, gentleman, knight, yeoman, both elements of the compound are made plural (Paidos,2001:18-19): man-servant – men-servants, woman-teacher – women-teachers, yeoman-farmer – yeomen-farmers, etc.

Some foreign nouns have preserved their plural form (stratum-strata, analysis-analyses), others have been given the English plural (bonus-bonuses, arena-arenas) and others have both English and foreign plural (genius-genii/geniuses, curriculum-curricula/curriculums)

Letters, abbreviations and figures form their plural by adding –s (1980`s, G.M.s)

There is a category of nouns that have the same form in the singular and in the plural – the so-called ‘zero plural’, since no suffix is added to from the plural. This category includes names of animals, sheep, deer, cod, etc. or nouns denoting units of measurement: pound, foot, stone.

Gender

In Romance languages gender is defined as a grammatical category, established according to a formal criterion i.e. the form of the noun in the singular is contrasted to the one in the plural (in both cases cardinal numerals precede the noun), this being the only criterion to indicate the noun gender, whereas meaning has no relevance in the matter (for instance, o carte-două cărți, the noun is feminine in Romanian). (Pisoschi, 2012:63)

In English gender is defined as a lexical category, i.e. this grammatical category is described according to a logical criterion, the semantic one – grammatical gender corresponds to the biological category of ‘sex‘:

If the noun is animate then it can be either feminine or masculine according to his/her biological gender (the noun woman is feminine since it denotes a female referent, the noun man masculine since it denotes a male referent).

If the noun is inanimate or if it refers to abstractions, then the noun is neuter (The book is very interesting. He had the crazy thought of infiltrating the gang).

Quirk`s definition of gender as: ‘by gender is meant a grammatical classification of nouns, pronouns, or other words in the noun phrase, according to certain meaning-related distinctions, especially a distinction related to the sex of the referent’ (Quirk,1985:303) reinforces the idea mentioned above.

Complementing Quirk`s view, in Longman`s Grammar of Spoken and Written English, Biber states that ‘gender is a less important category in English than in many other languages‘ (Biber, 1999: 20-22).

The distinction between feminine and masculine can be made by:

Using different words (bachelor-maid, husband-wife, son-daughter)

By adding suffixes to the masculine form:

-ess (host-hostess, mister-mistress, god-goddess)

-ine (hero-heroine)

-ix (administrator-administratix)

-a (czar-czarina)

-e/enne (confidant-confidante)

-ette/-use (chauffeur-chaufeusse)

By adding the suffix –er to the feminine (widow-widower (Paidos,2001:14)

Another suffix added to the feminine form of the noun is –groom (bride-bridegroom)

Compound nouns in which the first element refers to gender:

Nouns denoting people (son-in-law – daughter-in-law, price-consort – queen-consort)

Nouns denoting animals (he-bird – she-bird, he-leopard – she-leopard)

Compound nouns in which the second element refers to gender (policeman-policewoman, spokesman – spokeswoman, half-brother – half-sister)

There is another category of nouns, that is common (dual) gender nouns – which denotes either sex, and the same word may be used both of male and female: baby, child, cook, animal, student, writer, teacher, etc. In this case the sex of the referent is irrelevant, what matters being the quality expressed.

For clarity, in order to emphasize gender when necessary, some gender markers can be used: girl-friend, woman-teacher, male student, etc. In the case of inanimate nouns, in order to suggest affection towards them we can refer to them by using he/she (I like my new bag and I take great care of her.); there is another situation in which we can refer to people with disregard thus using the pronoun it (You have finally found the man? Where did you find it?)

Nouns in the neuter gender denote things, ideas or beings whose sex we are not interested in: house, water, happiness, infant, etc. and collective nouns (team, family, committee).

Some nouns that are neuter can become either feminine or masculine for stylistic purposes. In such case the following nouns may become masculine

Nouns denoting violent actions or suggesting power: crime, fear, murder, terror, death, grave, stream etc.

and the following may be considered as feminine:

Nouns denoting beauty, gentleness: devotion, hope, nouns referring to elements from nature: earth, moon, nouns denoting negative traits of character: vanity, revenge, jealousy, etc

There is a category of common gender nouns which have acquired a negative connotation: tomboy when referring to a female who behaves like a boy, or sissy – the opposite of tomboy– in order to indicate the effeminate behaviour of a man.

Case

Case represents the grammatical category used to indicate the relation between different parts of speech. As far as the noun is concerned, it is used to establish the syntactic functions of the noun/nominal phrase. We can distinguish four different cases in English: Nominative, Genitive (possessive), Dative and Accusative, with no distinction in form except in the Genitive.

The Nominative case

The nominative case is unmarked formally; a noun is in the Nominative case when:

It is the subject of the sentence

The woman gave us some interesting information.

It is the predicative of the verbs: to be; to seem; to look; to appear:

That man is a detective.

It is the apposition of a noun:

My friend, a well-renowned scientist, will give us some answers.

It is the subject of a non-finite verb, as part of the Absolute Nominative: Mother being very kind, she offered to help me.

The Vocative Nominative refers to a being or a thing to which we are addressing:

Sir, could you help me!

The Genitive case

The Genitive is used to express both the idea of possession and that of origin, composition, material and measure. The Genitive can be classified in point of form and in point of meaning.

In point of form we can distinguish between four forms of Genitive:

The Synthetic/Saxon Genitive, marked by the grammatical suffix 'sis formed as follows:

Singular nouns add 's: My friend's house.

Plural nouns add ': Her parents' photo.

Irregular plural nouns add ' s: The men's tools

Proper nouns ending in –s usually get Zero Genitive, as mentioned by Quirk (Quirk, 1985:320), so as to avoid repetitive combinations of sounds: Mr. Jones' farm.

The Synthetic Genitive is used with:

Nouns denoting people: his brother's ball, the student's notes

Proper nouns referring to people: Jane's car, Tom's native town

Collective nouns: the team's efforts, the jury's decision

Nouns denoting other than people: the dog's bone

Personifications: Romania's beauty, the moon's brightness, freedom's defence

Names of boats, ships and vessels: the ship's anchor

Names of chronological divisions or nouns referring to measurement, distance, weight, etc.: today's news, a month's holiday, a foot's distance

Idiomatic expressions: the heart's desire, for God's sake, out of the harm's way

When the idea of possession is implied with several nouns, the Genitive marker is added only to the last one,

The man and the woman's travel tickets (they both have the same tickets.)

as opposed to each possessor being followed by the mark 's:

The man's and the woman's travel tickets (the man has some travel tickets and the woman has others).

In the same way 's can be added to a whole phrase: The girl next door's dog.

Sometimes the Genitive is used elliptically – without the ‘possessed object‘:

When the object possessed has been mentioned before, in order to avoid repetition:

Mary's daughter is four years old and so is her sister's.

When one of the following words: hotel, shop, theatre, church, etc. is understood:

I have to go to the grocer’s. Their wedding ceremony was at St. Paul's.

The Analytical/ Prepositional/ Periphrastic Genitive is marked by the use of the

preposition of and has no restrictions:

When the ‘possessor‘ is a thing: the colour of the walls

Before substantivized adjectives: the life of the rich

In some geographical names: The Isle of Man

To emphasize the importance of a proper name: the crimes of Hitler

Before proper names followed by an apposition: the article of Mr. Barkley, the scientist

When the “possessor” is a small animal, insect: the wings of the fly, as opposed to the elephant’s tusk

When the object possessed is preceded by a demonstrative adjective or an indefinite article: these books of the students

In some idiomatic expressions: all of sudden, as a matter of fact, by means of, etc.

The Analytical Genitive is generally an alternative to the Synthetic one, but this is no longer possible when the latter has an adjectival value:

That is a woman’s work (not the work of a woman); or with the nouns mother, father, nurse, aunt, grandmother used as proper names and not preceded by a possessive adjective: Mother’s day, Aunt Jane’s gift; or when it denotes names of cities, institutions, shops, etc: St Helens (=St. Helen’s town); or when the noun in Genitive is followed by a Gerund:

Harry’s coming here was very surprising for all of us.

The Double Genitive is marked by both the suffix and the preposition: A painting of Anna (one portraying her) as opposed to A painting of Anna’s (one painted by her or belonging to her)

The Implicit Genitive has no genitive markers and it is used for concision: The United Nations Organization (The organization of the United Nations), Student Hostel (the hostel of the students).

In point of meaning we can distinguish between several types of Genitive according to the relation between the possessor and the possessed element:

Possessive Genitive refers to ownership proper: your brother’s bike, Mary’s bag

Descriptive Genitive used to imply the general characteristic of the head noun: a woman's scarf, a winter's tale

Subjective Genitive, when the relation head noun – Genitive noun is, at the deep structure, verb – subject: the Prime Minister's resignation = the Prime Minister resigned

Objective Genitive, where the relation head noun – Genitive noun is, at the deep structure, verb – object: the team's physical exam = X is examining the team members

Appositive Genitive, when the noun phrase in the Genitive has the role of an appositive attribute of the head noun: the city of Jersey = Jersey City

Partitive Genitive used when the head word is a numeral or a quantifier: many of your writings, ten of your poems

Gradation Genitive used to render the stylistic value of superlative : the thief of thieves

Genitive of Origin: Italy's spaghetti

Genitive of Measure: a thirty minutes' delay, two months' holiday, a stone's throw

Genitive of Attribute: the victim’s courage (Quirk,1985:322)

The Dative case

The Dative Case is the case of the indirect object, showing to whom the action of the verb is directed. It is not marked formally, being identifiable by means of the prepositions to and for or by word order.

The Dative case is generally used when the noun phrase follows:

Some intransitive verbs as: to happen, to occur, to submit, to surrender, to propose, etc:

He proposed to the members to submit a report.

Some transitive verbs as: to give, to hand, to offer, to tell, to show, etc:

He handed the flowers to the actress.

Some transitive verbs as: to buy, to do, to make, to choose, to save, etc:

Mother made a cake for the children.

Adjectives as: kind, cruel, adequate, etc:

You were very kind to the children.

Some nouns and pronouns:

She was like a mother to the girls. Her attitude to the girls was surprising.

From the semantic point of view, the Dative Case can refer to (Pisoschi, 2012:83):

Something concrete – the Dative of Direction:

The headmaster nodded to the teacher to open the ceremony.

Something abstract – the Internal Dative:

He is very cruel to the animals in the shelter.

Pragmatically, the indirect object can be placed in front position in the sentence in order to emphasize the referent they express:

For her family, she would do anything. (Dative of Interest)

To me, this whole thing is rather confusing. (Dative of Reference)

The Accusative Case

The Accusative Case is the case of the Direct and Prepositional Object, Adverbial Modifier and Prepositional Attribute. It is not marked formally and can be identified by means of word order and prepositions when they are used in the context.

The Accusative Case is generally used when the noun phrase follows:

Transitive verbs, denoting the direct object: eat, meet, drink, need, etc:

She needed a favour.

Some intransitive verbs, turning them into transitive ones: cry tears, walk: They cried tears of joy.

Some intransitive verbs recategorized as transitive; they belong to the same word family as the noun phrase in the Accusative, functioning as a cognate object: sing a song, talk the talk, etc:

He sang the saddest song I’ve ever heard.

Prepositions

They’re looking at the teacher.

Determination

The grammatical category of determination is specific to nouns and appeared out of the necessity to identify a unique or specific item (the Black Sea, that student) or to refer to an entire category of elements (The dog is a loyal animal) and it a category. Determiners represent a class of words which have the function of specifying the reference area of the noun they determine. (Pisoschi, 2012:19)

As opposed to Romanian, where the article may be attached to the noun (calculatorul, mașina, fetele) acting as a suffix, in English determiners are independent words, even if they cannot be used without a noun.

Determiners can be classified depending on:

The nature of the determiner as a part of speech: a lexical-grammatical class– numerals, adjectives with restrictive and numeric value and purely a

grammatical class– articles and pronominal adjectives (Pisoschi,2012:20)

Their position in relation to one another: predeterminers, determiners proper and postdeterminers (Gălățeanu Fârnoagă & Comișel, 1997:97)

Predeterminers are placed before the determiners and include: indefinite pronouns (all, both, half) and numerals (double, twice, one-third, four-quarters). When the predeterminers are followed by nouns we can differentiate between three situations:

all of the students all the students all students

If the predeterminer is followed by a personal pronoun the use of the preposition of is mandatory: all of them, half of us. When combined with nouns, predeterminers allow the use of central determiners and the preposition of is optional: half (of) the book, twice the fun.

Determiners proper (Gălățeanu Fârnoagă&Comișel, 1997:97) include the subclasses of the article and the pronominal adjectives.

Postdeterminers follow the determiners proper in the noun phrase but precede adjectives and quantifiers (one, two, three, etc or many, few, several or much, little). Postdeterminers are represented by ordinal numerals: first, second, fifth, etc. or the adjectives other, another, next, last, whole, certain.

MORPHOLOGY AND SEMANTICS. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FORM AND MEANING WITH NOUNS

While morphology is the area of traditional grammar which entails the rules regarding the form of the words and the changes they undergo when used in various contexts, semantics is considered to be one of the main branches of contemporary linguistics which studies the meaning of linguistic expressions. Linguists who study semantics look for general rules regarding the relationship between form and meaning. With nouns the relationship between form and meaning can be observed, for instance, when classifying the nouns – since they can be classified from a semantic criterion (common or proper), a formal criterion which involves semantics, too since the form of the noun can vary according to their meaning (countable nouns used as uncountable, for example) and a structural criterion.

1.2.1 Countability in English. Count vs. Uncount nouns. The relativity of classification criteria

In English common nouns can be divided into count (or countable) and noun-count (or uncountable) nouns. Countable nouns form contrast in point of number – door-doors, phone-phones, while uncountable nouns generally do not have a plural form – milk, money.

The relationship between form and meaning as well as the relativity of the classifying criteria with countability in English can be noticed in defective individual nouns (Pisoschi, 2012:56) considered by some grammarians to be uncountable nouns. Others, such as L. Levițchi consider them to be a class of individual nouns – they have a plural meaning but can be used in the singular when using partitives (a pound of nails, a box of cherries) (Pisoschi, 2012:57). Defective individual nouns include:

Nouns which are plural in form and take a plural verb – instruments made of two parts: scissors, scales, tongs, spectacles, pliers, binoculars, bellows, etc. or clothing articles: jeans, pants, pyjamas, shorts, tights, trousers, overalls, etc.

Pluralia Tantum nouns which are plural in form and meaning: vitals, genitals, entrails, savings, earnings, surroundings, damages, remains, regards, antics, chemicals, odds, necessaries, commons, valuables, annals, contents, corps, funds, spirits, thanks, scraps, troops, goods, grounds, the Alps, the Carpathians, the Netherlands, etc. This category of pluralia tantum also includes nouns which are plural in form and singular in meaning – names of diseases and illnesses: measles, mumps, rickets, rheumatics, names of some games: billiards, cards, dominoes, marbles, draughts, names of subjects and sciences: physics, economics, linguistics, civics, mathematics, optics, phonetics, politics, informatics, etc.

Singularia Tantum nouns are singular in form and their meaning is in some cases singular, too or in others plural: bread, advice, flour, cotton, butter, business, news, knowledge, luck, luggage, meat, money, wheat, weather, progress, peace, nylon, happiness, intelligence, income, information, furniture, clergy, rice, sand, silver, gold, chalk, jam, food, etc.

1.2.2. Turning count nouns into uncount nouns and vice-versa

The relationship between morphology and semantics allows the speakers of English to turn count nouns into uncount and vice-versa according to various contexts in which they use the nouns.

Some countable nouns can be turned into uncountable with a difference in meaning: (Gălățeanu Fârnoagă&Comișel, 1997:79)

The same way some uncountable nouns can become countable by using quantifiers: a piece of, a loaf of, a slice of, a bar of, an item of, etc:

a piece of advice/information

The clerk gave me a very useful piece of information regarding the form I had to fill in.

a slice of cheese/cake

I just want a slice of that delicious cake.

a lump of coal/sugar

The waiter knew that he took his coffee with a small lump of sugar.

an item of business/news

These two items of news were taken straight from the source.

a word of advice/abuse

“Take this word of advice: never underestimate the power of positive thinking.”

a bit of interest/work

The article stirred up a bit of interest among the committee.

a bar of chocolate

Another ingredient she used for the cake is a bar of dark chocolate.

a strip of land

According to the grandfather’s will, he received a strip of land near the lake.

Other English nouns have two plural forms with different meaning: (Paidos, 2001:21-22)

die ~dies (matrițe)

The company was known for its experience in dies and moulds.

~dice (zaruri)

‘Just roll the dice and let’s start the game.‘

formula ~formulas (forme ale cuvintelor)

Ancient writing consisted of different formulas.

~ formulae (formule matematice)

The student wrote down all the necessary formulae for the prototype.

genius ~geniuses (genii)

They were referred to as a family of geniuses.

~genii (spirite)

The enchantress called various genii in order to make the spell.

index ~indexes (cuprins)

All the indexes was put in the database.

~indeces (semnele matematice)

The teacher advised the students to pay attention to the indeces lest they should miscalculate.

medium ~mediums (clarvăzători)

They called out to different mediums to help them find the hidden treasure.

~media (mijloace)

There are different media of obtaining the product.

penny ~pennies (monede)

The old lady gave the little girl a couple of pennies in return for her assistance.

~pence (valoare colectivă)

The coffee was only five pence in that bar.

staff ~staffs (personal, colectiv de oameni)

The two singers had different staffs backstage.

~staves (set de linii orizontale folosite în muzică)

The young composer was carefully placing the musical symbols on the staves.

cloth ~cloths (diferite feluri de material)

The trader brought in various expensive cloths from his latest expedition to India.

~clothes (haine)

All her smart clothes were scattered on the floor.

There are some nouns in English which have an uncountable singular form and an uncountable plural form(Gălățeanu Fârnoagă, Comișel, 1997:83)

Pluralia tantum nouns and summation plurals are sometimes mistaken with

the plural form of some countable nouns.(Gălățeanu Fârnoagă&Comișel, 1997:84)

MORPHOLOGY AND SYNTAX

Concord in English. Types of concord NP-VP

In English the verb agrees with the subject in number and person, if these distinctions are featured in the verb. Except for the verb to be, the distinctions appear only in the present tense having two forms:

The –s form (the verbs end in –s, -es or-ies according to their spelling) when used in the third person singular

The base or uninflected form used otherwise

The NP-VP agreement in number is made according to: (Gălățeanu Fârnoagă, &Comișel, 1997:177)

– Form – grammatical concord

– Meaning – notional concord

– The distance between the nouns functioning as subjects and the verb –Proximity concord

Grammatical concord

The general rule of the NP-VP concord is that a singular noun takes a singular verb and a plural noun takes a plural verb. This rule applies to countable nouns which have a singular and a plural form.

This painting is very interesting to analyse.

These books are the most expensive I’ve ever bought.

Singularia tantum nouns. In their case the NP-VP agreement is made in the singular:

Uncountable concrete nouns

Cheese is made of milk.

Uncountable abstract nouns

Their progress is fast.

The information was useful.

The news is great.

Names of diseases

Measles is infectious, but the noun mumps can take both a singular and a plural verb Mumps is/are a contagious viral infection.

Names of sciences and school subjects

Informatics is a very popular subject among the students.

Note! nouns such as phonetics, acoustics, statistics can take both a singular verb and a plural one, when their meaning changes:

Phonetics is studied as a branch of linguistics. Fonetica este studiată ca ramură a lingvisticii.

The phonetics of this language are difficult. Fonetica acestei limbi este grea. (in spite of the general rule, the tendency of the majority of users would be to make the agreement in the singular)

Acoustics is one of his favourite subjects. Acustica este una din materiile sale preferate.

The acoustics of the concert were very bad. Calitatea acustică a concertului a fost foarte proastă.

Statistics is taught when studying economy. Statistica se studiază la economie.

Statistics are required when submitting the report. Datele statistice sunt necesare la predarea raportului.

Names of games

Billiards is one of their favourite Friday games.

The nouns gymnastics and athletics are usually used with a plural verb since they imply the idea of multiple sports and exercises.

Gymnastics are practiced at all ages.

Athletics are very popular in their school.

Some proper nouns ending in –s

The Times is read by many people in Britain.

Athens is one of the most beautiful cities she’s visited.

Substantivized adjectives or abstract participles

In fairy tales the good always wins.

Pluralia tantum nouns – the NP-VP agreement is made in the plural:

Nouns made of two parts (summation plurals)

The trousers she bought are very tight.

The children’s pyjamas were on the top shelf.

Her glasses are in the bag.

Some nouns ending in –s

Valuables are to be kept in the safe.

Unmarked plural nouns

The cattle are all in the stable.

Substativized adjectives or participle

The disabled attend special classes.

Some proper nouns

The Alps were a great climbing experience.

The proper noun the United States takes a singular verb when it is seen as a unit:

The United States is one of the most powerful countries in the world.

Subjects preceded by quantifiers

– when many a precedes the noun the agreement is make in the singular;

Many a girl dreams to become a princess.

-when an uncountable noun is preceded by a great/good deal the verb is in the singular

A great deal of information was lost in the process of transferring the data.

but a great/ good many takes a plural verb since the noun it determines is a countable plural noun

A great many of my colleagues were present at the reunion.

Other situations

If the determiner all comes before an uncountable noun the concord is in the singular and if it comes before a countable noun it is in the plural.

All the money was lost on the bet.

All the students have done their assignment.

A singular noun preceded by each, every, either, neither, some, any, no, much, little takes a singular verb.

Little was found during the investigation.

Each piece tells a story.

Every child has his favourite toy.

Neither answer was correct.

No proof was found.

Notional concord

In this case the NP-VP agreement is made according to the meaning expressed by the noun and not to its number.

Notional concord is specific to the following nouns:

Countable nouns with zero plural: deer, fish, sheep, French, species. In their case the agreement NP-VP is made according to their meaning in context, i.e. it can be done in the singular or in the plural:

This fish is very interesting.

These fish are swimming towards the reefs.

There is a French calling for the manager.

There are many French in this city.

This species is going extinct.

These species were highly evolved.

Collective nouns– family, committee, team, jury, government, crew, police etc. take a singular verb when reference is done to the group as a whole and a plural verb when reference is done to the members of the group:

The team is made up of ten players.

The team are all training on the field.

Police is a key institution in maintaining the order at the event.

The police were following the criminal.

The jury is to be chosen in the near future.

The jury were deliberating when the judge called them.

Nouns expressing quantity or variety – number, variety, kind, sort -can take a singular or a plural verb according to their meaning. The presence of articles helps reduce the semantic ambiguity, in that a preceding the quantifier implies concord with the noun, therefore plural concord, whereas the implies concord with the quantifier, therefore singular concord.

The number of students attending military schools is increasing.

A number of students were complaining about the quality of the hostel.

The variety of topics in the magazine is impressive.

A variety of goods were held back by the customs officers.

Compound nouns usually make a unit, therefore take a singular verb. The type of coordination and the structure of the phrase may differ:

Nouns connected by and:

My colleague and friend visits me once a month.

but if the nouns refer to different items the verb is in the plural:

The dog and the cat are playing outside.

A noun preceded by two coordinated adjectives:

A red and white blouse was on display for sale.

Two or more infinitives coordinated by and:

To meet customers, to make reports and to market the products is very demanding.

Numeric expressions

Two and two is/are four.

Ten kilometres is a long distance to run.

Twenty pupils means a moderate class.

Three kilos of flour is what they need for the pie.

Subject Clauses: That they reached this decision makes me very happy.

Interrogative pronouns – which and what take a singular or plural verb according to the number of the noun they replace:

What makes a great lesson?

Which were ours? – while who is usually used with a singular verb

Who is visiting you?, but in everyday language it is sometimes used in the plural

Who are in my room?

Proximity concord

According to the rule of proximity, the number form of the verb is given by the number form of the noun which is closest to the verb.

In English this is the case of:

With subjects coordinated by either…or, neither…nor, not only…but also the rule of proximity dictates the number of the verb.

Either the girls or the boy is responsible for this.

Neither your neighbour nor your friends were present that day.

Not only my parents but my sister is sending regards.

With subjects connected by words such as: with, together with, as well as, no less than, but, except, like, in addition to, including agreement is made according to the first element.

My friend, together with her students, is going on a field trip.

Her students, as well as their parents, are called for the monthly meeting.

Other situations – the proximity concord also applies for the following situations:

In sentences with introductory subject there

There is a wallet, a mirror, a lipstick and some papers in her bag.

There are wallets, combs, and personal belongings of the victims of the Holocaust on display at the museum.

In sentences introduced by here

Here are your notes and book. As opposed to Here is your note and books. although if the nouns make a unit the verb can be used either in the plural even if the first noun is in the singular

Here are your fish and chips. (referring to the traditional English dish)

Or in the singular

Where is his whisky and soda?

Proximity rule is applied after more than one, one or two

More than one person has complained about the poor quality of the staff.

One or two students have submitted some great essays.

1.3.2 Countability and concord. Conclusions and comments

Countability is a specific feature of the English nouns according to which countable nouns display number contrast – pen-pens and uncountable nouns can be either singular in form or plural – cheese, funds, etc.

Whereas countable nouns follow the general rule of concord – a singular noun takes a singular verb (The book is on the table) uncountable nouns can be divided in four main categories when approaching the NP – VP concord. These categories include:

Singularia Tantum nouns which usually take a singular verb

Pluralia Tantum nouns which usually take a plural verb

Zero plural nouns which can take both a singular or a plural verb according to their meaning in context

Collective nouns which can take both a singular or a plural verb according to their meaning in context

Looking at the examples analyzed above it is safe to say that English differentiates between concord based on form and concord based on meaning. The relationship meaning-form-concord goes beyond the clear rules of grammar. It is something conveyed by the speakers and established by the nature and circumstances of the conversation. For example one can say I received various advices and the other person will automatically understand that the speaker is referring to notifications, not counselling or information since the meaning of advice can allow the use of the plural form in this situation. So it is the relationship meaning-form-concord which allows speakers to understand the message of the conversation without any additional information. Another example of how this works is with the noun family considered to be a collective noun, which allows the use of both singular and plural NP-VP concord (Family is something great to have / My family are all away on holiday) pending on the meaning of the word – as a whole unit or its members; but let us not forget that family is in fact a regular noun, taking –ies when in the plural form family-families and following the general rules of NP-VP concord.

II. TEACHING NOUNS AS A GRAMMAR TOPIC. METHODOLOGICAL APROACHES

2.1 General considerations

Learning foreign languages has always been considered to be both useful and important. Moreover, speaking foreign languages has been viewed as a sign of education. Today parents enrol their children in kindergartens and choose optional classes where a foreign language is taught so that the children can learn a second language at a very early age. By doing so, the language is acquired naturally, with good pronunciation and good linguistic habits, such as grammar, are formed, not taught.

The role of foreign languages is linked nowadays with the development of the society and the globalization phenomenon. In the modern world a person cannot function efficiently without a minimum knowledge of computers and of at least one foreign language. This new role of foreign languages has made teachers devise new ways of teaching languages so that their methods should match the students’ needs.

Going back in time, Ferdinand de Saussure, the father of semiology (the science of signs) considered human communication to be a continuous encoding-decoding process that takes place between two or more individuals who share the same language. This process starts in the mind of the speaker who verbalizes his/her thoughts, organizing them into structures considering the rules of the language and then, gives them a physical, graphic form. The message thus formed is ‘sent’ towards the receiver as a continuous succession of sound waves (resembling a ‘ribbon‘). The listener, then, decodes the message by analyzing its structures and gets to the meaning the sender intended to convey.

The speaker’s competence to decode and encode linguistic messages is referred to as linguistic competence. Linguistic competence is closely linked to linguistic performance, which is the speaker’s actual usage of the language. At present, linguistic performance, as it was considered by Noam Chomsky, has gained its autonomous status as a type of competence, communicative or pragmatic competence.

In a globalized world, such as today’s world, mastering a common language is essential and therefore, English has become a very important tool for development and advancement in our society. Starting at an early age, students are becoming more and more aware of the importance of learning and mastering this language.

Some of the reasons for learning English as seen by7th grade students

But just as any language, English cannot be used properly without knowing its grammar. Grammar is the main element, the ‘binder’ of a language, the one which organizes the words and helps the speaker render a certain message. Without it, language would be a total chaos. Both oral and written communication but especially the latter depend on accurate grammar usage. We can safely say that, if with oral communication speakers can use alternative ways of rendering the message, in the case of written communication accurate grammar is of the upmost importance. Poor grammar can lead to confusing or even completely wrong, messages between people.

2.2. Teaching nouns as a grammar topic

Teaching grammar has been a controversial aspect of language teaching. There are some that do not pay enough attention to it and there are some who become too preoccupied with it. Nowadays, the fast pace of our society is determining learners of foreign languages to want to acquire the information faster than in the past. Starting with young learners, who aren’t concerned with grammar rules, their purpose being that of speaking, reading, understanding English as fast as possible, and even up to adult learners, grammar rules should not be taught without context.

This is the point where teaching grammar today is different from what it was a century ago when one of the approaches to teaching foreign languages was the grammar-translation method (GMT), which has been one of the oldest methods used by teachers around the world. The method relies on the acquisition of language by learning vocabulary and grammar rules and considered language learning to be an intellectual performance. One of the shortcomings of the approach is that it focuses on the role of the teacher – who provides model reading, writes the new words on the blackboard, presents grammar rules in a deductive way, corrects students’ pronunciation, checks students’ understanding of the text and corrects mistakes. Another one is that it mostly centres on developing reading and writing skills, while listening and speaking are considered to be secondary. Given all this communicative language teaching (CLT) was developed in the second half of the 20th century. And while the former focused on reading and writing, the latter targeted productive and communicative skills. The problem is that by doing so it creates space for the acquisition of bad linguistic habits – since grammar is explained and practiced only rarely and so are the teacher’s corrections of mistakes.

The Deductive Method (DM)

There are two ways of approaching grammar: deductive (rule-driven) and inductive (rule-discovery).

Grammar teaching sometimes occurs as a result of other work the students are performing, or it may happen for a grammar problem to present itself unexpectedly in the middle of a lesson and the teacher feels that it has to be dealt with on the spot. It may also grow from a task that the students are performing or have performed. We can plan in advance what we want to teach or just rely on the course book to teach grammar. When we want students to study any grammar piece we have our own grammar presentation and practice activities.

We can introduce grammar in a number of ways or we can just show them grammar evidence and ask them to work out on their own how language is constructed. We must provide opportunities for them to practise grammar and use games to make it more engaging. There is also a need for effective activities which have to be efficient and appropriate. When we teach grammar, our choice of strategy depends on three factors: the grammar item to be taught, the students’ age and language proficiency, and their personal characteristics. Based on all these we can decide upon the best techniques and the most appropriate material to be used -situational context or through texts, stories, songs and rhymes, games, dialogues, tapes, hands and arrows, grids, charts, etc.

The deductive approach is rule-driven and more teacher-centred, but it is easy to apply leaving little room for mistakes if the rule is stated clearly and concisely. It should be mentioned also that this method is not necessarily dependent on translation. According to Thornbury (1999:30) ‘many popular student grammar practice books adopt a deductive approach, having all their explanation and exercises in English.‘

The deductive method is a process. The teacher introduces the new structure, by stating its name, meaning, form, usage, exceptions then provides students with examples.

In general, the disadvantages of the deductive approach are summarized by Thornbury (1999:30):

Starting the lesson with a grammar presentation may be off-putting for some students, especially younger ones. They may not have sufficient metalanguage (i.e. language used to talk about language such as grammar terminology). Or they may not be able to understand the concepts involved.

Grammar explanation encourages a teacher-fronted, transmission-style classroom; teacher explanation is often at the expense of student involvement and interaction.

Explanation is seldom as memorable as other forms of presentation, such as demonstration.

Such an approach encourages the belief that learning a language is simply a case of knowing the rules.

The advantages of a deductive approach are:

It gets straight to the point, and can therefore be time-saving. Many rules — especially rules of form — can be more simply and quickly explained than elicited from examples. This will allow more time for practice and application.

It respects the intelligence and maturity of many – especially adult -students, and acknowledges the role of cognitive processes in language acquisition.

It confirms many students' expectations about classroom learning, particularly for those learners who have an analytical learning style.

It allows the teacher to deal with language points as they come up, rather than having to anticipate them and prepare for them in advance.’

This advantages and disadvantages hinge on the quality of the rule explanation and how user-friendly the rule is.

The deductive approach comes from deductive reasoning where rules, patterns and principals are presented and then practiced and where the concept goes from general to specific.

‘A deductive approach (rule-driven) starts with the presentation of a rule and is followed by examples in which the rule is applied. An inductive approach (rule-discovery) starts with some examples from which a rule is inferred’.(Thornbury, 1999: 29)

Through the inductive method the students study the examples and then from them they derive and understand the rule. It basically goes in the opposite direction from the deductive method. At the intermediate level students are already familiar with rule discovery; they are more active in the learning process; it involves students’ pattern recognition and problem solving abilities. Discovery learning involves a lot of practice and mistakes accompanied by guidance and feedback from the teacher. The Direct Method and the Natural Approach are often correlated with the Inductive approach. Both present grammar in such a way that students experience it.

The Inductive Method (IM)

The inductive method is a rule-discovery path, the learner studies examples from which derive an understanding of the rule. Language is acquired through exposure. This method is identified with the Direct Method and the Natural Approach. They share the assumption that language data is best processed inductively and differ when it comes to the way the input is selected and organized and how often the teacher should intervene. Inductive teaching is based on trial and error cycles with guidance from the teacher. Students learn by trying different things, seeing what works and what not.

The aim of this technique is to engage students in discovering a general grammar rule or pattern. The students ‘discover’ grammar following a series of steps that will lead them to deduce the meaning and the form. The teacher’s role is to guide them and provide help.

With the inductive method, students are subjected to examples of language use and then they are engaged in using the target language and encouraged to generalize the rules that were deduced.

According to Thornbury (1999:54) the advantages of this method are:

Rules learners discover for themselves are more likely to fit their existing mental structures than rules they have been presented with. This in turn will make the rules more meaningful, memorable, and serviceable.

The mental effort involved ensures a greater degree of cognitive depth which, again, ensures greater memorizing ability.

Students are more actively involved in the learning process, rather than being simply passive recipients: they are therefore likely to be more attentive and more motivated. It is an approach which favors pattern-recognition and problem-solving abilities which suggests that it is particularly suitable for learners who like this kind of challenge.

If the problem-solving is done collaboratively, and in the target language, learners get the opportunity for extra language practice.

Working things out for themselves prepares students for greater self-reliance and is therefore conducive to learner autonomy.

The disadvantages of an inductive method include:

The time and energy spent in working out rules may mislead students into believing that rules are the objective of language learning, rather than a means.

The time taken to work out a rule may be at the expense of time spent in putting the rule to some sort of productive practice.

Students may hypothesize the wrong rule, or their version of the rule may be either too broad or too narrow in its application: this is especially a danger where there is no overt testing of their hypotheses, either through practice examples, or by eliciting an explicit statement of the rule.

It can place heavy demands on teachers in planning a lesson. They need to select and organize the data carefully so as to guide learners to an accurate formulation of the rule, while also ensuring the data is intelligible.

However carefully organized the data is, many language areas such as aspect and modality resist easy rule formulation.

An inductive approach frustrates students who, by dint of their personal learning style or their past learning experience (or both), would prefer simply to be told the rule.’

Both methods offer certain advantages and disadvantages. As I mentioned before, the deductive class is more teacher-centred, while the inductive on is more student-centred. When it comes to meaning-focused instruction vs. form focused instruction, some researchers (Adair-Hauck, Donato, &Cumo-Johanssen, 2005; Felder, 1995; Hammerly, 1975; Larsen-Freeman, 2003; Shaffer, 1989) have come to a general consensus that the correct approach is the one that falls in between the two, a combination of the two methods.

A deductive and an inductive approach basically differentiate in lesson procedures, learner roles, teacher roles and usage of metalanguage in the teaching process.

A deductive approach is based on the top-down theory in which the presentation and explanation of grammar rules the main focus of teaching. The language is taught from the whole to parts so learners understand the grammar rules and structures firstly. Next, they see the examples provided by the teacher and finally they begin to produce their own examples.

In contrast to this, an inductive teaching is based on the bottom-up theory which accepts the view that language learners tend to focus on parts rather than the whole. For this reason teaching process begins with a text, audio or visual in a context. Secondly learners work on the material to find the rules themselves and then they give their own examples.

In a deductive approach learners are passive recipients when teacher elicits the rule on the board, whereas in an inductive approach they are active, as they are responsible for exploring the rules themselves. That is to say, while the process of learning in the inductive approach centers on experience, in the deductive approach it is more traditional and descriptive.

According to Thornbury (1999), the class where students involve in the lesson actively is quite reasonable since it provides a more comfortable and motivating environment for them. He also remarks that an inductive teaching supplies more profound knowledge of language as learners study cognitively in order to discover the rules. Whenever students are actively involved in the learning process, they develop a certain autonomy which helps them become good language learners.

Another significant difference between the two approaches concerns the role of the teacher. In a deductive teaching the teacher is the authority in the classroom. The main role of the teacher is to present the new grammar item to the learners. The second role is to prepare exercises for the students. The teacher is the organiser and controller of the classroom. Conversely, in an inductive teaching, the teacher behaves as a guide and helper while students study the grammar rules themselves. It appears that while deductive approach is teacher-centred and traditional, inductive approach is student-centred.

Applying the deductive or inductive approach, while teaching grammar, depends on the variety of students in the classroom. All learners are different and they learn in different ways. For instance, their needs, ages, backgrounds and levels are the factors that are taken into consideration by the teacher for choosing suitable teaching strategy. Adult learners tend to deal with grammar rules when using the target language due to the fact that they are able to better understand abstract items. Grammar rules offer them “a sense of security’, some extra help when producing new language. This is why deductive teaching is more appropriate in their case as they feel a thorough explanation of the rules meets their needs best. On the other hand, young learners feel it easier to explore grammar rules from the examples rather than being presented to them. They are more successful at learning by doing and so the inductive approach is recommended is their situation.

Today teaching is more about student-centred approaches as they actively involve learners and therefore make it easier for the learning process to be successful. However we cannot always use the inductive method: in classrooms with a high number of students the inductive approach – which requires students working in pairs or small groups – can be very difficult to apply since it would be hard for the teacher to control learners while working on the rules.

I believe that we cannot say that the inductive method is better or provides better results, than the deductive one. It is a matter of finding the right approach in certain given circumstances; one that will meet the students’ needs best. This is why, when choosing the deductive or inductive method, we should consider the learners’ personal choices and their learning style as well.

Overall, I can sum up by saying that a deductive and an inductive approach differ in terms of learner and teacher role, lesson procedures and usage of metalanguage, the language for teaching grammar items. In addition to this, it is possible to combine these approaches for teaching grammar in terms of the grammar item, learner profile and setting. It is also the teacher’s decision to choose the suitable approach in terms of learner needs.

2.2.1 Teaching the morpho-syntactic feature of countability

Countability – countable and uncountable nouns – is one of the most challenging grammar points in teaching English. Typical mistakes include:

Telling students that ‘uncountable‘ means one cannot count something, when in fact you can quite easily count rice and pasta by adding quantifiers: a kilo of rice or a plate of pasta.

Asking students to classify things as countable or uncountable without providing any help; or make useful generalizations from those classifications

Asking learners to divide things into countable or uncountable when they can be actually both: some chicken/a chicken, some coffee/two coffees

Asking students to correct some errors which aren’t actually errors: some works (which could mean artworks)

Explaining why nouns logically must be uncountable when they are actually countable in other languages, such as Romanian: money-bani, furniture-mobilă, information-informație

Not providing students with quantifiers –a piece of/pieces of – which could help them make uncountable nouns into countable and guide them towards using countable nouns with the same meaning

Teaching students that –s is always used with countable nouns then having to deals with common errors like ‘some sheeps‘or‘some childs‘

Teaching that –s is never used with uncountable nouns and later having to deal with examples like some paints in which case some means some different kinds of.

Teaching rules rather than patterns

Correcting their errors instead of providing correct alternatives: for example ‘You can’t say a bread‘ rather than ‘You can say a loaf of bread‘ or ‘a slice of bread’

Not being aware that some common student mistakes are due to the fact that they confuse an irregular plural with an uncountable noun: ‘There is some children’ or ‘Have you caught much fish?’

Therefore, in order to avoid these commonly made mistakes the teacher should help students with defining words as countable and uncountable:

Although it is sometimes connected to actually being able to count something or not, the term “uncountable’ is a grammatical one and points to the fact that one cannot put a number directly in front of such nouns, unless they have a different meaning i.e. “kinds of’ (There are three gases in this test tube). This also means that uncountable nouns don’t add –s or any other plural form.

Words which are often uncountable include among others sports, abstract nouns, things we think of as substances, words denoting feelings, natural phenomena etc.

There are nouns which can have both a countable and uncountable form but with different meanings: some staff (=employees)/ some staffs (= some large sticks)

There is a category of uncountable nouns which can be made countable in particular situations: three coffees=three cups of coffee; two beers=two pints of beer, etc

There are times when it is not clear if a noun is countable or uncountable because it varies by dialect or is changing: some data is/ some data are. In what this particular nouns is concerned, according to the Oxford English Dictionary‘In Latin, data is the plural of datum and, historically and in specialized scientific fields , it is also treated as a plural in English, taking a plural verb, as in the data were collected and classified. In modern non-scientific use, however, despite the complaints of traditionalists, it is often not treated as a plural. Instead, it is treated as a mass noun, similar to a word like information, which cannot normally have a plural and which takes a singular verb. Sentences such as data was (as well as data were) collected over a number of years are now widely accepted in standard English.’

Students will need to know that they can turn uncountable nouns into countable by using quantifiers: a carton of milk, a sheet of paper, a piece of information, a loaf of bread, etc.

‘Many’ and ‘much’ with positive statements is rare, especially in conversational English: I have much free time would almost always be I have lots/a lot of free time.

To sum up, I consider it to be useful to start teaching countability by telling students ‘that nouns are countable or uncountable and many dictionaries have a [U] or a [C] next to such nouns to show what they are. But since, the same word can have a number of different meanings; it is not always possible to say that a collection of letters like sugar is always uncountable. Change its meaning slightly and it is quite possible to say Two sugars, please, and the waiter at your table might well say So that’s two ice creams and two cheeses, showing that cheese has suddenly changed its status from uncountable to countable. We may think we are faced with the same word, but we are actually dealing with two different lexemes or meaning units.’(Harmer, 2001:22)

2.2.2. Teaching concord NP-VP in English

People achieve communication primarily through speech or writing. In order to achieve proficiency in communication, whether oral or written, the knowledge of such grammatical elements as concord is necessary.

Cambridge Dictionary defines concord as ‘the situation in which the words in a sentence match each other according to the rules of grammar, for example when the verb is plural because the subject of the sentence is plural.’

In this paper we will discuss concord in terms of NP-VP agreement.

In the classroom the teacher should start by saying that the general rule is that a singular subject takes a singular verb and a plural subject takes a plural verb:

The bird sings beautifully.

The birds sing beautifully.

As opposed to Romanian, in English collective nouns may be followed either by a singular verb or a plural one. When the noun is regarded as a whole it takes a singular verb:

His family is called Gates.

But when it is thought of a group of individuals, it takes a plural verb:

His family are at the seaside.

“The rule of proximity’ states that in the case of subjects connected by either…or and neither…nor the number of the verb is given by the subject which is closest to the verb:

Neither her sister nor her friends were at the ceremony.

Neither their parents nor their brother was there.

Two or more subjects connected by and take a plural verb:

The teacher and the students are in the classroom.

But when the two subjects are regarded as a whole they are followed by a singular verb:

My colleague and friend visits me every week. (one person)

My colleague and my friend visit me every week. (two different people)

A singular noun preceded by each, either, every or neither takes a singular verb’

Either example is worth studying.

Every book tells an interesting story. but,

Every first ten books to be bought are signed by the author. (plural noun follows every and it attracts a plural verb)

The same happens with more…than

More than one student knows the answer to the question.

More than five students know the answer to the question.

The plural must be used with anything greater than one unit: one and a half months, but in the case of nouns denoting units of measurement a singular verb is required, when they are preceded by numeral:

Ten months is a long time.

Five miles is a long distance to jog.

When the words together with, with, as well as, in addition to, including follow the subject they do not affect its number:

Jane, as well as her friend, visits the museum monthly.

His friend, together with his father, has been helping Tom all morning.

The noun number takes a singular verb when preceded by the definite article the and a plural verb when preceded by the indefinite article a:

The number of students attending the class is impressive.

A number of students are attending the class.

Singularia Tantum nouns such as advice, information, money, luggage, damage, knowledge, etc. take a singular verb:

Their information was very useful.

Your money is in the bag on the table.

Pluralia Tantum nouns are followed by either a singular verb with nouns such as measles, mumps, billiards, cards, news, etc. or by a plural verb with nouns such as glasses, scissors, trousers, surroundings, content, chemicals, etc. or both with nouns such as acoustics, phonetics, means, series, etc.

Billiards is their favourite game.

The scissors are in the top drawer.

Acoustics is a domain he has always wanted to study.

The acoustics of the room has contributed to the success of the concert.

Given all these we should emphasize the idea that, even if they may seem like a lot at first, concord rules help students render the correct idea. Without them sentences will sound awkward and the speaker can confuse the listener and/or the reader of the message.

Methods of teaching countability and concord. A textbook analysis

When teaching grammar, the teacher has a triple role in the process: source of information for the new grammar pattern, organizer and manager of the activities, and counsellor for error correction. (Vizental, 2007:190)

Teaching grammar is a three-level process which implies:

Presentation – the teacher introduces the grammar structure,

Practice – the students practice the new structure, and

Use – the students use the new structure in communicative activities:

Just as I have mentioned early on in this chapter, grammar can be introduced deductively (teacher-centred activities) and inductively (student-centred activities).

Presentation

With young learners, deductive teaching is not recommended as it is too abstract for their age, it involves too much theory and this might scare them away. Therefore, the teacher must use interesting activities so as to introduce grammar contextually, to facilitate understanding and learning and to encourage good habit formation.

One way to introduce countable and uncountable nouns as well as some/any in an elementary class would be to have students read a text

‘This is our kitchen. We’ve just been shopping. There are some apples on the table and some grapes in the fruit basket. There is some juice on the counter and some pasta on the table. We didn’t buy any water or any lemons, but we bought some bread. Oh, I’m hungry – I think I’d like a sandwich! Have we got any cheese or any tomatoes?’ and then provide them with the explanation that:

we can say some apples/some juice

we use any in questions and negatives Have we got any cheese or any tomatoes? We didn’t buy any water or any lemons

we use some/any with both countable and uncountable nouns

We could also ask students to place the nouns inside the text into the right column, providing help when necessary:

Another way of introducing countability and quantifiers at an elementary level might be to present students with some shopping lists:

Shopping list Shopping list

A large loaf of bread Three lemons

Two bars of soap A box of cereals

Five apples A magazine

A bottle of water Five cans of fizzy lemonade

A carton of milk Ten colored pencils

Ten eggs A kilo of sugar

and ask students the same as before, divide the items on the lists into countable and uncountable. The teacher might also encourage and guide students to notice the way we can turn uncountable nouns into countable, by using quantifiers, thus making students aware of the fact that countability can be a changeable feature sometimes.

With intermediate students, especially adult learners, deductive teaching such as patterns, comparative presentation and theoretical explanation can work best. The teacher might ask students to match nouns such as hair/hairs, air/airs, work/works, etc. with their two meanings and explain them using the mother tongue:

Choose the suitable word in italics and explain your choice:

She has dark brown hair/hairs.

It is difficult to find work/works today.

There are thirty minute/minutes till take off.

The wounded animal was lying on the ground/grounds.

We really enjoyed the mountain air/airs.

This museum has just been donated some great work/works.

She was writing the minute/minutes of the meeting when I last saw her.

She has got two white hair/hairs.

Have you got any ground/grounds for calling her a thief?

Despite her air/airs and graces she has very few skills.

Another activity to introduce uncountable nouns for general categories at this level is to get students to match categories and examples, brainstorm more examples for each category, and then label each noun as countable or uncountable.

B&Bs hotels apples bread

Write each noun under the correct heading:

Practice

At this stage of the lesson, at the elementary level the teacher might use exercises such as categorization in order for the young learners to separate nouns into countable and uncountable and then use those nouns to ask each other sentences.

Ask and answer as in the example (Evans, 2005:57):

How much sugar is there?…….1 kilo……………..

How many oranges are there?…..3 oranges…….

……………..bread is there? …………………………….

…………….meat is there? ………………………………

……………bananas are there? …………………………

…………….coffee is there? …………………………….

…………….tomatoes are there? ………………………

……………..biscuits are there?………………………..

…………….milk is there? ………………………………

…………….potatoes are there? ……………………….

This particular exercise can help students practice countability – using quantifiers and determiners – as well as concord NP-VP.

At an intermediate level we might choose exercises such as translations from the mother tongue to the second language or the other way so as for the students to make comparisons between the two languages.

Traduceți următoarele propoziții în limba engleză:

Ne-a dat toate informațiile necesare.

Cunoștințele lor de biologie sunt impresionante.

Știrile publicate pe website sunt complet false.

Compania ne-a returnat bagajele după o săptămână.

El a cumpărat doar fructe și două pâini.

Translate the following sentences into Romanian:

The judge asked for the minutes of the meeting.

I thought it was an interesting book just by looking at the contents.

The Middle Ages was a tumultuous period in history.

The building burnt to ashes.

Tom is always in good spirits.

Or we could ask them to choose the correct form of the verb, in order to practice concord:

The basketball team is/are top of the league this championship.

A number of people was/were outside the building.

Neither the boys nor the girl was/were at school.

Fish and chips is/are a traditional English dish.

The police is/are chasing the suspect.

Use

The main goal of this stage is to have students use the new structure in communicative activities. This can be done by having students find differences between sets of pictures

Is there any milk in your photo?

Are there two sandwiches on the kitchen counter?

Is there a bottle of water on the table?

Or by having students write their favourite recipe, where they have to use both countable and uncountable nouns as well as quantifiers – one litre of milk, two teaspoons of sugar, four spoons of flour, etc. It is very important in this stage to encourage only the use of English even if this means shorter or simpler sentences.

At an intermediate stage students could be asked to write a questionnaire and then conduct a survey about Healthy food habits among their classmates, by using questions such as How many vegetables do you eat a day? Or How much water do you drink every day?

Students will then have to present their conclusions by again using both countable and uncountable nouns and quantifiers and determiners.

A textbook analysis

When teaching it is up to the teacher to establish the amount of information offered to the students. This is done, among others, according to the level of the class – beginner, intermediate, advanced – as well as to the students’ interest in the subject. In this paper we will analyse a textbook taken from Snapshot Elementary used when teaching English as a secondary foreign language for students in the 6th grade. As we can see the information given to the students is very simple in content but leaves room for many questions and future mistakes in using countable and especially uncountable nouns.

Grammar flash

Countable and uncountable nouns

Countable nouns have a plural form

Singular Plural

one banana two bananas

Uncountable nouns have only one form

coffee tea money

I like coffee but I don't like tea.

It is therefore the teacher’s role to offer students enough information so as to make them understand the difference between countable and uncountable nouns, by pointing out the difference between some Romanian nouns and English nouns and their countability (money, bread, fish, advice, etc). In the presentation stage of the lesson it is useful to introduce quantifiers when talking about uncountable nouns ( a cup of coffee, two loaves of bread, a piece of advice, etc)as well as determiners (some bread, any money, some biscuits, etc) so as to make students realize that countability can be changed with their help. Another aspect which should be mentioned as it is not presented in the students’ book is the one of NP-VP concord when talking about uncountable nouns. The teacher should at the same time avoid giving too much information regarding countability so as to avoid students feeling overwhelmed at this level. So in order to do this in the use stage the textbook suggests an exercise where students only have to list the ingredients needed for some recipes and not the quantities, thus avoiding the usage of more detailed quantifiers.

Interaction

Student B: Turn to page 121

Student A: You are at a supermarket. You want to make a cheese omelette and a mixed salad for lunch. Look at the recipe and phone Student B to ask if the things you need are in the kitchen. Then make a list of things you must buy.

I want to make a cheese omelette and a mixed salad for lunch. Have we got any eggs?

No, we haven't.

A: Have we got any…?

III. INTEGRATING FORMALISM AND FUNCTIONALISM IN TEACHING COUNTABILITY AND CONCORD

3.1. Teaching grammar

When talking about grammar we can make a distinction between formal grammar and functional grammar. The former term refers to the approaches and descriptive categories used in grammar, describing the written language (pretty much like Latin grammars, or grammars in the 18th and 19th century) and using notional criteria, while the latter refers to the way in which language is used taking into account communicative purposes, as well as stylistic and social factors. Functionalism is generally regarded as an alternative to formalist approaches to the study of language. However, the terms formalism and functionalism are not entirely adequate since language studies have shown that they embody two different kinds of opposition, one concerning the basic view of language adopted by linguistic theories and the other having the purpose of constructing a formal representational system.

Grammar teaching has moved on from focusing solely on the traditional/formalist method to relying more on the modern/functionalist one. A great role in this process has been played by Michael Halliday’s and Noam Chomsky’s theories which have made foreign language teachers come to the conclusion that their aim should be to endow the students with a kind of linguistic competence similar to that of the native speakers of the language. Therefore, grammar should be taught in context since in the real world language does not occur in isolated sentences, but in a continuous flow, a logically connected string of words or sentences; linguistic studies have shown that people use the language in a much more complex way that the dictionary or grammar rules state. For example, Close the door! Even when please is added sound pretty much like a command /order; therefore, the polite speaker might prefer asking “Can you close the door?”. This precise question might be seen by the listener as one questioning his/her ability to perform the action but the experienced listener will know that it is in fact and indirect request for the action to be performed.

3.2. General aim and specific objectives

The general aim of the study is to investigate the effectiveness of the traditional/formalist method as well as the modern/functionalist one in teaching nouns, mainly countability and concord.

I have chosen two elementary classes, one where I applied the traditional/formalist method of teaching nouns by simply stating the rules and the information presented in the Students’ book and the other where I chose the modern/functionalist method and added supplementary information in order to teach for communicative purposes.

The specific objectives of this study are:

– to check the students’ knowledge regarding nouns, mainly countability and concord;

– to present and practice nouns – countability and concord –;

– to integrate grammatical and semantic information, thus resulting the meaningful and syntactic accuracy;

– to develop the students’ competence to use nouns adequately;

– to show that using the modern/functionalist method is a more efficient way of teaching nouns by registering, monitoring and comparing the results of the tests following the experiment.

3.3. Case study

The data were collected from two sources: a pre-test and a post-test. The same pre-test and post-test were given to both classes and displayed the knowledge of the participants on the nouns as well as the increased effectiveness of the functionalist method.

3.3.1 Participants

In my study I used two groups of elementary students. English was their second foreign language so their knowledge of the language was quite basic. Both groups used the same textbook, followed the same curriculum, had the same amount of classes per week – two- and were of similar age (12-13). The study took place throughout two school years 2015-2017. The students were split into two groups:

Group T (12 students) – where I used the traditional method of teaching nouns

Group M( 12 students) – where I used the modern method of teaching nouns

3.3.2. Material

The material I used to teach nouns was given to the students according to the method used – traditional/formalist and modern/functionalist.

Group T

Vocabulary and grammar lesson using only the information given in the course book

A translation of a text from English into Romanian

Reading comprehension questions

Interaction – communication using the taught vocabulary

Group M

Presentation of the new words in context

Grammar presented inductively

Shopping list – game

Writing a recipe

3.3.3. Procedure

With Group T I used long explanation of grammar regarding the English nouns: theory and rules about countability, quantifiers and noun-verb concord as well as the way in which we can make an uncountable noun become countable; the explanations were given in Romanian. The method used was a traditional one, the grammar-translation method (GTM). A lot of translations were done in the lessons, but very little speaking in English. The students wrote the list of new words from the blackboard. For the grammar presentation I used the deductive method – explanation of the rules, followed by examples and practice where students also had printed handouts, worksheets and course books. The translation of the text into Romanian was done insisting on the differences between English nouns and Romanian nouns in point of countability and concord. For the practice stage, where students had to interact with each other, no supplementary instructions, other than those in the textbook, were given and students’ mistakes were carefully corrected.

With Group M I used modern/functional teaching based on talking more/only in English and less/none at all in Romanian. Vocabulary was presented in context using miming and other aids to guide the students to the meaning of the words. Grammar was presented inductively thus involving the students in the discovery of the countability and concord rules. Speaking in English was encouraged throughout the entire lesson even if it meant shorter or simpler sentences. For the practice stage a game was chosen so as to increase the students’ involvement and make grammar seem more fun and less complicated. In the writing task students were guided by the teacher whenever necessary solely for the purpose of enhancing the trust in their knowledge.

A description of the experiment

Group T – traditional methodology

Vocabulary and grammar lesson using only the information given in the course book

After introducing the topic of the lesson I asked the students to look at the pictures and match the numbers with the words (Figure 1). The unknown words were written on the blackboard. No additional help such as miming or other aids was used in providing the Romanian translation. Students then had to say which of the food items was their favourite and which was not.

Figure 1

For the grammar part students were given only the information in the course book (Figure 2), which divided nouns into countable – having a plural form – and uncountable – having one form. The determiners presented in the course book were some and any (figure 3). Grammar was presented deductively.

Figure 2

Figure 3

Then for the practice stage students were asked to say which nouns were countable and which not from a list of words.

Practice

Say which of these words are countable (C) and which are uncountable (U).

apple C butter U

Apple butter bread doughnut rice

olive oil spaghetti biscuit beef

A translation of a text from English into Romanian

For the reading stage of the lesson, I chose the grammar-translation method and I had each of the students read a line from the dialogue (figure 4), while I carefully corrected the mispronunciations. The new words were written on the blackboard in the form of bilingual lists and the students had to memorize the list for the following class. The text was translated into Romanian.

Figure 4

Reading comprehension questions

In order to ensure the understanding of the text I chose the comprehension questions from the course book.

Comprehension

Answer the questions.

When do they have lunch?

What sort of sandwiches are there?

Is Louise hungry?

Answer T (true), F (false) or DK (don’t know).

Joe is hungry.

There aren’t any sandwiches for vegetarians.

There are two sorts of fruit.

The weather is fine and sunny.

Interaction – communication using the taught vocabulary

This stage of the lesson was meant to have students use the vocabulary and grammar taught in the lesson in order to communicate to each other. Once again, without giving students any additional information or help, I divided them into pairs and asked each pair member to use the taught vocabulary and grammar to solve the task (figure 5&6).

Figure 5

Figure 6

The effects of teaching nouns through traditional methodology were the following: all the students in Group T, although quite enthusiastic at first, soon became confused and uninterested due to the dullness of the lesson. They felt overwhelmed by the grammar part of the lesson and although the explanations were quite simple in content it was precisely this that created their confusion. They couldn’t understand the idea of countability in English nor the difference in use between some and any as they were presented in the course book. Moreover, the grammar-translation method applied when reading the text contributed to the lack of interest on behalf of the students since vocabulary was presented in the form of long bilingual lists which they thought quite difficult to memorize. As for the communicative part of the lesson, students were quite reserved since they did not feel they had mastered the proper tools to ensure their communication in English. They pretty much tried to use Romanian whenever possible, instead of trying to use shorter, simpler sentences in English.

Group M – modern methodology

Presentation of the new words in context

For this stage I had the students read a small text regarding food habits in order to introduce vocabulary related to food. The new words were translated by the students with the use of miming or other additional clues regarding their meaning (it is green and it has leaves – for the lettuce or it is round and very sweet – for the doughnut).

You are what you eat

Sarah and Jack know that healthy eating is very important. So they always try to eat healthy meals. In the morning they have some toasted slices of bread with butter or jam, a cup of tea or a glass of fresh juice, some yoghurt or some fruit. They know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. In the afternoon they have a bowl of soup and some steak with vegetables and in the evening they usually have some pasta or a sandwich. They try to eat as less sweets as possible and they prefer drinking fresh juice rather than fizzy drinks. This week they are having a school project to convince their classmates that they are what they eat.

After reading the text to the students the teacher divided them into four teams. The number of members was equal in each team – three students. Each team was given a worksheet with columns entitled breakfast, lunch, dinner and other (figure 7). The team members were asked to choose from the food items in their course book (figure 1) the ones suitable to their worksheet.

Figure 7

Grammar presented inductively

Teacher drew students’ attention to the text read previously in the lesson while handing each student a copy of the text. Students were asked to notice the food items (singular and plural forms and quantifiers). This way grammar rules were presented inductively and with the teacher’s guidance and help, students discovered countable nouns, uncountable nouns as well as the quantifiers used to make uncountable rules become countable. Students divided the nouns referring to food into countable/ uncountable and quantifiers (figure 8).

Figure 8

Students were then given a handout (figure 9) (Evans, 2003:7) with food items and quantifiers and were asked to discover the rule.

Figure 9

After discovering the rule, students were given worksheets to practice countable/uncountable nouns and quantifiers (figure 10) (Evans, 2003:8)

Figure 10

Shopping list – game

Students were divided into three teams of four and each team was given a shopping list (figure 11). One member from each team was the buyer and was not allowed to look at the shopping list. The other members each called out an item from the list and the buyer put it in his/her shopping basket. The items from the list were actually pictures of different food items. The team which finished the shopping list first won the game.

Shopping list

Three loaves of bread

some peas

a big box of cereals

five eggs a carton of milk

ten apples

one packet of butter a bottle of olive oil

four bananas

some beef

Shopping list

some chicken six tomatoes a kilo of rice

a packet of biscuits

two cucumbers a box of pasta

some cheese two oranges some beans

some mushrooms

Shopping list

ten peaches three carrots

some lamb

two onions

four potatoes

one melon

a bag of nuts

a bottle of juice three lemons some lettuce

Figure 11

Writing a recipe

Teacher split the students in pairs and each pair was asked to write a simple recipe using the vocabulary and grammar notions acquired during the lesson. Students were reminded that their sentences should not be long and complicated but rather simple and on topic. They were asked to write the ingredients needed as well as the main processes in obtaining their recipe. Students then read their recipes to the whole class.

The effects of teaching nouns through modern methodology were the following: all the students in Group M were very enthusiastic and content with the fact that vocabulary was presented using miming, which made it a lot funnier; they felt happy that they discovered the grammar rules themselves, thus becoming more confident. Countability and quantifiers felt a lot easier to understand and memorize with the help of the game they played, something which enhanced their team spirit and boosted collaboration among them. Each team worked hard to win the game. The writing task was welcomed due to the fact that in was done in pairs so they did not feel overwhelmed by it. Most of the speaking during the lesson was done in English, keeping speech as simple and short as possible.

The two groups were taught the nouns – countable/uncountable – using traditional methodology (Group T) and modern methodology (Group M).

In Group T I used long explanation of grammar; the explanations were given in Romanian. A lot of translations were done in the lessons, but very little speaking in English. The grammar-translation method was used for the reading part of the lesson and vocabulary and grammar were presented deductively. The students had only their course books with no additional material or explanations.

In Group M I used modern teaching. The grammar rules and lexis were not explained by myself but presented inductively; every new notions in English were introduced through miming and other aids guiding the students to the meaning and appropriate usage. Grammar rules were also discovered by the students themselves which made it all the more interesting. There was a lot of team work and pair work which made the students feel more comfortable with the lesson and enjoy the tasks more.

Data collection and analysis

Regarding the present study, we should mention the enthusiasm of the students for the English lesson to start. The aim of the study was to show the academic success of the two classes after the treatment using the traditional and modern methodology.

Data was collected from different sources: a pre-test and a post-test.

Stages of the case study

3.4.1. The pre-test stage

3.4.1.1. Objectives and comments on its structure

The main aim of the pre-test stage of this study was to determine the students’ knowledge of English nouns, particularly of countability and determiners/quantifiers. The pre-test was conceived according to the students’ level of English – elementary and was applied to both groups – M and T.

The main objectives of the pre-test were:

To assess the general knowledge of students regarding countable/ uncountable nouns

To assess the students’ knowledge of quantifiers/determiners

To assess the students’ ability to make correct sentences using countable/uncountable nouns

The structure of the pre-test was the one of discrete-point tests due to the fact that

this type of tests relies on the assessment of isolated items and the aim was to test only a certain aspect of grammar – countable/uncountable nouns and quantifiers/determiners

they are highly reliable – their results are obvious and countable

they are “testee-friendly” (Vizental:2007,68) since the students’ work is reduced. Even low achievers can choose between variants instead of writing compositions or essays

and consisted of

blank completion

multiple choice items

arranging elements.

Pre-test on Nouns

Name: Class:

(Total 90 points)

TEST PAPER

Fill in the plural form of the following nouns: (20 points, 2/item)

One orange – two …………………………………………..

One pencil – two …………………………………………….

Some milk – two ……………………………………………..

One mouse – two …………………………………………….

One peach – two ……………………………………………..

Some honey – two …………………………………………..

Some bread – two …………………………………………..

One cherry – two …………………………………………….

Some chocolate – two ……………………………………..

Some water –two ………………………………………………

Circle the correct item (20 points, 2 /item)

a/an/some tea

a/an/some umbrella

a/an/some bread

a/an/some banana

a/an/some money

a/an/ some salt

a/an/some milk

a/an/some biscuit

a/an/some meat

a/an/some pasta

Complete the phrases with the correct word from the box: (20points, 5/item)

1.a…………………………of………………………………..

2. a ………………………of…………………………………

3. a ……………………..of………………………………….

4. a……………………….of……………………………………

Put the words in the correct order to make sentences: (30 points, 6/item)

1. on/ There / the table. / a peach / is

_______________________________________________________

2. the plate. / any/ isn’t / on / cake / There

_______________________________________________________

3. flour/ is / the box. / There / in / some

_______________________________________________________

4. the freezer? / Is / ice cream / there / any / in

_______________________________________________________

5. for/ He / a banana / ate / a snack

_______________________________________________________

3.4.1.2. Pre-test results. Their analysis

It can be seen from the data in Table 1 that there was no significant difference between how well both groups did on English nouns on the pretest. There was no significant difference in the scores either.

Table1. Pretest Statistics

Figure 12

Table 2.Pretest score results for Group T and Group M

Figure 13

Figure 14

3.4.2. The teaching stage

For this stage of the study the lesson plan was adapted to the two methods: traditional/formalist and modern/functionalist.

The activities used for the traditional/formalist method were the ones described in subchapter 3.3.3 and were mainly based on the students’ course book. The lesson plan based on these activities was applied to Group T.

For Group M a different lesson plan was conceived based on the modern/functionalist method and its specific activities.

LESSON PLAN

School: Școala Gimnazială Tălpaș

Teacher: Claudia Nicolae

Grade: 6th

Level: Elementary

Textbook: Snapshot Starter

Lesson: Would you like a sandwich?

Lesson type: mixed

Time: 50 minutes

Lesson aims:

To practice and improve reading

To learn and practice the use of countable/uncountable nouns

To talk about food

To encourage and improve speaking

To encourage and improve writing

Assumptions:

The students are familiar to some of the words related to the text

Some of the students may have difficulties in understanding the text

Some of the students may find it difficult to produce the language

Skills: reading, speaking, writing, listening

Aids: textbook, blackboard, chalk, handouts

Class management:

The classroom must be clean, light and comfortable

Teacher’s attitude: keeps eye contact, encourages and makes positive remarks, moves around the classroom and helps when necessary

Evaluation:

Initial – through warm-up

Continuous – through activities and direct observation

Final – through feed-back

Activity 1: Warm-up

General competence: 1

Reference competence: 1.1

Derived competence: sharing information

Competence content: language functions; sentences related to the topic of the lesson

Method: dialogue, eliciting ideas from students

Procedure: T greets the Ss and introduces the topic of the lesson by uttering clearly some words connected to food (e.g. I like pasta but I don’t like lamb). Then T asks the Ss to recognize the meaning of these words and to guess what they are going to talk about.

Interaction: T-Ss; Ss-T

Class management: whole class activity

Timing: 5’

Activity 2:

General competence: 3

Reference competence: 3.1

Derived competence: understanding the global meaning of the text

Competence content: text related to food

Method: dialogue, eliciting ideas from Ss

Procedure: Ss are asked to read the text from handout 1. T provides help in understanding the text, if necessary, through the help of miming or other aids.

Interaction: T-Ss; Ss-T

Class management: individual work

Timing: 10’

Activity 3:

General competence: 1&3

Reference competence: 1.3&3.2

Derived competence: selecting the correct information and expressing Ss’ opinion

Competence content: exercise – fill in the chart

Method: dialogue, eliciting ideas from Ss

Procedure: T splits Ss into teams of three. Each team is given a handout -2- entitled Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Other and is asked to fill it in with the correct food items from page 26 in the S’s Book. T provides any necessary help. Each team presents its results to the others.

Interaction: T-Ss; S-S; Ss-T

Class management: team work

Timing: 10’

Activity 4:

General competence: 3

Reference competence:3.1&3.2

Derived competence: practising the use of countable/uncountable nouns and the vocabulary related to the text

Competence content: fill in the chart based on the studied text/fill in the blanks

Method: presentation, dialogue, eliciting ideas from the Ss

Procedure: T gives Ss’ handouts -3- and draws their attention to the text about food. T asks Ss’ to fill in the chart based on the text. T presents grammar inductively. Ss’ discover the rules for using quantifiers with uncountable nouns. T gives Ss’ handout 4 and asks them to solve the task. T provides any necessary help.

Interaction: T – Ss; Ss-T

Class management: individual work, whole class activity

Timing: 10’

Activity 5:

General competence: 1&2

Reference competence: 1.3&2.4

Derived competence: practising the use of countable/uncountable nouns and the vocabulary related to the text

Competence content: using vocabulary to complete a shopping list

Method: dialogue

Procedure: T splits Ss in teams of 4. Each team is given a handout -5- and asked to choose a buyer. The buyer is not allowed to look at the list. The other members of the team each call out an item form the shopping list which the buyer has to choose and put in his cart. The team which completes the shopping list first wins the game.

Interaction: T-Ss; Ss-S

Class management: team work; whole class activity

Timing: 10’

Feed-back: The T draws conclusions from the Ss’ answers, gives marks and general appreciation

Timing: 3’

Giving assignment: The T pairs the Ss’ and gives the homework for the next class (writing their own recipe) and explains what the Ss have to do

Timing: 2’

Handout 1

You are what you eat

Sarah and Jack know that healthy eating is very important. So they always try to eat healthy meals. In the morning they have some toasted slices of bread with butter or jam, a cup of tea or a glass of fresh juice, some yoghurt or some fruit. They know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. In the afternoon they have a bowl of soup and some steak with vegetables and in the evening they usually have some pasta or a sandwich. They try to eat as less sweets as possible and they prefer drinking fresh juice rather than fizzy drinks. This week they are having a school project to convince their classmates that they are what they eat.

Handout 2

Handout 3

Handout 4

Handout 5

Shopping list

three loaves of bread

some peas

a big box of cereals

five eggs

a carton of milk

ten apples

one packet of butter

a bottle of olive oil

four bananas

some beef

Shopping list

some chicken

six tomatoes

a kilo of rice

a packet of biscuits

two cucumbers

a box of pasta

some cheese

two oranges

some beans

some mushrooms

Shopping list

ten peaches

three carrots

some lamb

two onions

four potatoes

one melon

a bag of nuts

a bottle of juice

three lemons

some lettuce

3.4.2.1. The traditional/formalist method applied in teaching English nouns. Sample activities

The traditional/formalist method and its activities are more effective starting with the upper-intermediate students or adult-learners since it focuses on the deductive approach and the grammar-translation method. These types of learners would feel more confident with the teacher explaining the rules first, followed by examples to illustrate the rules and then practice. Therefore the following would be suitable activities for the formalist method:

Translations to and from English in order to practice countability and NP-VP concord

Traduceți următoarele propoziții în limba engleză:

Unde este foarfeca?

Matematica este materia sa preferată.

El a plecat să cumpere două pâini.

Ea și-a vopsit câteva fire de păr.

Poliția nu a putut găsi procesul verbal al ședinței.

Copiii fac mari progrese în învățarea unei limbi străine.

Mediu a fost o perioadă tulbure în istorie.

Cuprinsul cărții i-a stârnit interesul.

Pescarii au prins doi pești mari.

Cartierul general al companiei tocmai s-a mutat la Londra.

Translate the following sentences into Romanian:

The police have arrested the burglars.

Unfortunately, the species is facing extinction.

The money was on the counter.

A great number of students have decided to go on the trip.

The news she got was excellent.

All his family were on holiday when the letter came.

Mumps is an infectious disease.

Where are his scissors?

The poultry in this farm is fed twice a day.

The advices were left at the door.

Fill-in exercises, after grammar was presented deductively:

Put the following nouns into the right column, countable (C) and uncountable (U): news, book, money, human, advice, water, glass, bottle, coffee, furniture, paper, phone, table, melon, species, pillow, beer, salt, computer, glove, flour, minutes, time, room, board.

Choose the correct form, after grammar was presented deductively:

(Murphy, 2004:141)

Matching elements following deductive presentation of grammar

(Forsyth, Lavender, 1995:16)

3.4.2.2. The modern/functionalist method applied in teaching English nouns. Sample activities

The modern/functionalist method and its activities are highly effective at any level and with any type of learners. The method relies on the inductive approach since it involves students in discovering the rules instead of simply having the teacher present them. The following would be suitable activities for the functionalist method:

Multiple choice items for the inductive presentation of determiners

(Vince, 2010:100)

Matching elements for the inductive presentation of NP-VP concord

(Vince, 2010:107)

Matching elements for the inductive presentation of countable/uncountable nouns:

(Forsyth, Lavender, 1995:17)

Brainstorm for the inductive presentation of form vs. meaning

chairs

sofa

The Post-test stage

3.4.3.1. Objectives and comments on its structure

The main aim of the post-test stage of this study was to determine the students’ knowledge on English nouns, particularly on countability and determiners/quantifiers based on the methods applied in teaching the two groups – T and M. The post-test was conceived according to the students’ level of English – elementary and was applied to both groups – T and M.

The main objectives of the post-test were:

To assess the students’ knowledge of countable vs. uncountable nouns

To assess the students’ knowledge of quantifiers/determiners (a/an/some)

To assess the students’ ability to make correct sentences using countable/uncountable nouns

To assess the students’ ability to recognize and correct the language mistakes.

The structure of the post-test was the one used in the pre-test, that is discrete-point tests because just as in the pre-test stage the purpose was to test just a small segment of the language, more precisely grammar and the knowledge acquired in the teaching stage.

The structure of the post-test consisted of :

multiple choice items

fill-in the blanks

error correction.

Post-test on Nouns

Name: Class:

(Total 90 points)

TEST PAPER

Fill in using a or some (20points – 2/item)

Make plural forms as in the example (30points – 2/item)

Look at the picture and describe it (20 points – 2/item)

Find the mistakes and correct them (20 points – 4/item)

I want two breads. …………loaves of bread………………

He bought a water from the supermarket. ……..……………………………..

She needed a rice from the shelf. …………………………………………………….

The children ate two bowls of chocolate. ………………………………………..

He was sick so he drank a jar of hot tea. ……….……………………………..

Mom bought a bowl of cheese for the pie. ……….……………………………..

3.4.3.2. Post-test results. Their analysis

The students from Group T, as well as the students from Group M, received the same post-test which was not too different from the pre-test. The aim of the post-test was to investigate the effectiveness of teaching nouns, mainly the aspect of countability and concord using traditional and modern methodology. According to the results, the post-test showed that the students in Group M scored higher. Group M did not make a great progress in post-test compared to the pre-test, but they had a higher score than Group T. The results of Group Tin the post-test were high too, which implies that the students from this group had more space to improve, since their results in the pre-test were slightly smaller than those of students in Group M, which leads to the idea that both traditional and modern technology worked almost the same in the groups, except for the students reaction towards the atmosphere during the English lessons: the students in Group M were more communicative and enthusiastic than the students in Group T.

Table 3. Post-test statistics

Fig. 15. Post-test Summary Statistics

Table 4. Post-test score results for Group M and Group T

Fig. 16 Post-test score results for Group M and Group T

Figure 17

Table 5.Pre-test scores for Group M and Group T

Fig.18

Table 6.Post-test scores Group M and Group T

Fig.19

Pre-test and Post-test

In this study two tests – a pre-test and a post-test – were applied to the two groups – M and T. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of using traditional and modern methodologies in teaching nouns and whether the two can be applied at the elementary level to promote the acquisition of English nouns.

The pre-test was given to the students in order to see their knowledge related to nouns before entering the treatment. When the results of the pre-test were known the students from the two classes were named Group T and Group M- the first group would be taught using traditional methodology and the latter, modern methodology.

The results of the post-test revealed the fact that each methodology worked well in the particular group, and the students improved their knowledge. Both methodologies were effective in teaching the English Nouns for both groups of students.

Table 7.Group M Pre-test vs. Post-test results

Fig. 20

Fig. 21

Table 8.Group T Pre-test vs. Post-test results

Fig.22

Fig. 23

3.4.5. Conclusions

Teaching grammar plays an important role in the process of learning a foreign language. In this part of my paper I wanted to underline the results of the experiment. From the beginning the main goal was to teach nouns (countability, determiners, quantifiers and concord) to two groups of students from different classes, with almost the same level of language, using traditional methodology for Group T and modern methodology for Group M.

The use of traditional methodology in my way of teaching consisted of detailed grammar explanations given in Romanian. A lot of translations were done in the lessons, but very little speaking in English. The grammar-translation method was used for the reading part of the lesson and vocabulary and grammar were presented deductively. The students had only their course books with no additional material or explanations other than the ones in the students’ book.

As for the use of modern methodology the grammar rules and lexis were not explained by myself but presented inductively; every new notion in English was introduced through miming and other aids guiding the students to the meaning and appropriate usage. Grammar rules were also discovered by the students themselves which made it all the more interesting. There was a lot of team work and pair work which made the students feel more comfortable with the lesson and enjoy the tasks more.

The results were discovered quickly. In Group M, students were motivated, enthusiastic and they enjoyed communicating as much as they could in English. In Group T, students showed less interest in participating in the English classes.

The students in Group T implied that, even if teaching through the traditional methodology was less interesting, they were quite successful because one could notice an improvement in their grammar, rules and vocabulary. According to other teachers, the grammar- translation method seems to be more efficient; this could be due to the fact that in Group T all the rules and definitions were given to the students in their mother tongue. But one could say that the students in Group T were slightly disadvantaged, because all my other colleagues, teaching different subject-matters, were teaching using mostly modern methodology and they were not used with dull lessons any more.

All in all, the results of the study concluded that both groups made a progress in learning nouns; the results for the Group T showed almost the same progress as the ones for Group M which leads to the conclusion that both methodologies seemed to be quite equally efficient. According to my research, I can conclude that it is the use of mixed methodologies in the classroom that can lead to better results and happier students.

CONCLUSIONS

In the past the teachers’ attitude towards grammar was viewed differently: some teachers neglected it, especially at beginner or elementary levels, others gave it too much importance thus making students see it as something to be “feared” in the future. But since the middle of the 20th century, along with the theories that have changed the way teaching is done, grammar has achieved its much deserved place. It has become an important part in teaching a foreign language, a link between the skills that students must master, something which connects the words in a language making them function appropriately.

Teaching a foreign language must be seen as a process made up of equally important parts, listening, speaking, writing, reading and grammar. Therefore, starting with elementary levels, students must become familiar with grammar as part of the lesson and as a facilitator of putting words together to form correct and meaningful sentences, a tool which will enable them to master the language entirely.

In the first part of my paper I tried to offer a theoretical view regarding the nouns in the English language, presenting nouns as a morphological class, but dealing also with morphology and semantics and morphology and syntax.

In the second part, methodological approaches of teaching grammar were presented, especially in teaching countability and concord. Also a textbook analysis was done based on the students’ books.

In the third part a study on integrating formalism and functionalism in teaching nouns was done, presenting the advantages of an integrative perspective and its application in textbooks; an experimental stage was conducted in order to show how each method could be applied in the class. The purpose of the study was to establish the effectiveness of using traditional and modern methodologies in teaching nouns, to investigate which methodology can be applied better in the teaching lesson to improve students’ acquisition of English nouns.

The activities, the texts and the examples were taken from the Students' book "Snapshot Elementary” and grammar books. Textbooks and grammar books are very important because they are the primary resource for students, along with the audio and video materials that accompany them. I used my experience to present a sample lesson plan and activities related to the topic.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Breyer Peterson, Pamela. 1996. Grammar Work 2 – English Exercises, Prentice Hall Regents

Carstairs-McCarthy, Andrew.2002.An Introduction to English Morphology: Words and their Structure. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press

Darnell, Michael. 1999. Functionalism and formalism in linguistics, John Benjamin Publishing

Evans, Virginia. 2005. Round-up 2, Longman

Evans, Virginia. 2006. Round-up 3, Longman

Finch, G. 1998.How to study linguistics, Palgrave:MacMillan.

Gălățeanu-Fârnoagă, G. & E. Comișel.1993 Gramatica limbii engleze pentru uz școlar. București:Omegapres& RAI

Greenbaum, Sidney. 1996. The Oxford English Grammar. Oxford: OUP.

Harmer, J. 2001.The Practice of language Teaching. London: Longman

Lavender, Sue, Forsyth Will. 1995. Grammar Activities 2: Upper Intermediate, Macmillan Heinemann

Leech, G. & Jan Svartvik. 2002. A Communicative Grammar of English, 3-rd edition, Pearson Education

Paidos, Constantin. 2001. English Grammar. Theory and Practice, Polirom

Pisoschi C. G. 2012. The Basics of Nominal Reference, Universitaria, Craiova

Quirk, Randolph, S. Greenbaum, G. Leech, and J. Svartvik. 1985.A comprehensive grammar of the English language. London: Longman.

Thornbury, S. 1999. How to teach grammar. Harlow: Longman

Vizental, Adriana. 2007. Metodica predarii limbii engleze. Strategies of Teaching and Testing English as a Foreign Language, Iasi, Polirom

Vince, Michael. 2010. Elementary Language Practice, Macmillan

Textbook

Abbs, Brian, Freebarn, Ingrid, Barker, Chris. 2001. Snapshot Elementary, Manual de limba engleza pentru clasa a-VI-a, Longman

Internet sources

https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/data

APPENDIXES

Appendix A

Pre-test on Nouns

Name: Class:

(Total 90 points)

TEST PAPER

Fill in the plural form of the following nouns: (20 points, 2/item)

One orange – two …………………………………………..

One pencil – two …………………………………………….

Some milk – two ……………………………………………..

One mouse – two …………………………………………….

One peach – two ……………………………………………..

Some honey – two …………………………………………..

Some bread – two …………………………………………..

One cherry – two …………………………………………….

Some chocolate – two ……………………………………..

Some water –two ………………………………………………

Circle the correct item: (20 points, 2/item)

a/an/some tea

a/an/some umbrella

a/an/some bread

a/an/some banana

a/an/some money

a/an/ some salt

a/an/some milk

a/an/some biscuit

a/an/some meat

a/an/some pasta

Complete the phrases with the correct word from the box: (20 points, 5/item)

1.a…………………………of………………………………..

2. a ………………………of…………………………………

3. a ……………………..of………………………………….

4. a……………………….of……………………………………

Put the words in the correct order to make sentences: (30 points, 6/item)

1. on/ There / the table. / a peach / is

_______________________________________________________

2. the plate. / any/ isn’t / on / cake / There

_______________________________________________________

3. flour/ is / the box. / There / in / some

_______________________________________________________

4. the freezer? / Is / ice cream / there / any / in

_______________________________________________________

5. for/ He / a banana / ate / a snack

_______________________________________________________

Appendix B

Post-test on Nouns

Name: Class:

(Total 90 points)

TEST PAPER

Fill in using a or some: (20points – 2/item)

Make plural forms as in the example: (30 points – 2/item)

Look at the picture and describe it:(20 points – 2/item)

Find the mistakes and correct : (20 points – 4/item)

I want two breads. …………loaves of bread………………

He bought a water from the supermarket. ……..……………………………..

She needed a rice from the shelf. …………………………………………………….

The children ate two bowls of chocolate. ………………………………………..

He was sick so he drank a jar of hot tea. ……….……………………………..

Mom bought a bowl of cheese for the pie. ……….……………………………..

Appendix C

LESSON PLAN

School: Școala Gimnazială Tălpaș

Teacher: Claudia Nicolae

Grade: 6th

Level: Elementary

Textbook: Snapshot Starter

Lesson: Would you like a sandwich?

Lesson type: mixed

Time: 50 minutes

Lesson aims:

To practice and improve reading

To learn and practice the use of countable/uncountable nouns

To talk about food

To encourage and improve speaking

To encourage and improve writing

Assumptions:

The students are familiar to some of the words related to the text

Some of the students may have difficulties in understanding the text

Some of the students may find it difficult to produce the language

Skills: reading, speaking, writing, listening

Aids: textbook, blackboard, chalk, handouts

Class management:

The classroom must be clean, light and comfortable

Teacher’s attitude: keeps eye contact, encourages and makes positive remarks, moves around the classroom and helps when necessary

Evaluation:

Initial – through warm-up

Continuous – through activities and direct observation

Final – through feed-back

Activity 1: Warm-up

General competence: 1

Reference competence: 1.1

Derived competence: sharing information

Competence content: language functions; sentences related to the topic of the lesson

Method: dialogue, eliciting ideas from students

Procedure: T greets the Ss and introduces the topic of the lesson by uttering clearly some words connected to food (e.g. I like pasta but I don’t like lamb). Then T asks the Ss to recognize the meaning of these words and to guess what they are going to talk about.

Interaction: T-Ss; Ss-T

Class management: whole class activity

Timing: 5’

Activity 2:

General competence: 3

Reference competence: 3.1

Derived competence: understanding the global meaning of the text

Competence content: text related to food

Method: dialogue, eliciting ideas from Ss

Procedure: Ss are asked to read the text from handout 1. T provides help in understanding the text, if necessary, through the help of miming or other aids.

Interaction: T-Ss; Ss-T

Class management: individual work

Timing: 10’

Activity 3:

General competence: 1&3

Reference competence: 1.3&3.2

Derived competence: selecting the correct information and expressing Ss’ opinion

Competence content: exercise – fill in the chart

Method: dialogue, eliciting ideas from Ss

Procedure: T splits Ss into teams of three. Each team is given a handout -2- entitled Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner/Other and is asked to fill it in with the correct food items from page 26 in the S’s Book. T provides any necessary help. Each team presents its results to the others.

Interaction: T-Ss; S-S; Ss-T

Class management: team work

Timing: 10’

Activity 4:

General competence: 3

Reference competence: 3.1&3.2

Derived competence: practising the use of countable/uncountable nouns and the vocabulary related to the text

Competence content: fill in the chart based on the studied text/fill in the blanks

Method: presentation,dialogue, eliciting ideas from the Ss

Procedure: T gives Ss’ handouts -3- anddraws their attention to the text about food. T asks Ss’ to fill in the chart based on the text. T presents grammar inductively. Ss’ discover the rules for using quantifiers with uncountable nouns. T gives Ss’ handout 4 and asks them to solve the task. T provides any necessary help.

Interaction: T – Ss; Ss-T

Class management: individual work, whole class activity

Timing: 10’

Activity 5:

General competence: 1&2

Reference competence: 1.3&2.4

Derived competence: practising the use of countable/uncountable nouns and the vocabulary related to the text

Competence content: using vocabulary to complete shopping list

Method: dialogue

Procedure: T splits Ss in teams of 4. Each team is given a handout -5- and asked to choose a buyer. The buyer is not allowed to look at the list. The other members of the team each call out an item form the shopping list which the buyer has to choose and put in his cart. The team which completes the shopping list first wins the game.

Interaction: T-Ss; Ss-S

Class management: team work; whole class activity

Timing: 10’

Feed-back: The T draws conclusions from the Ss’ answers, gives marks and general appreciation

Timing: 3’

Giving assignment: The T pairs the Ss’ and gives the homework for the next class (writing their own recipe) and explains what the Ss have to do

Timing: 2’

Appendix D

Pre-test on Nouns

Evaluation and Answer Key

6th GRADE

There are no additional points than those mentioned.

Total 90 marks plus 10 additional points.

(20 points, 2/item)

1.oranges. 2.pencils. 3.bottles of milk.4.mice.5.peaches.6.jars of honey.7. loaves of bread.8.cherries.9.pieces/bars of chocolate.10.glasses/bottles

(20 points, 2/item)

1.some.2.an.3.some.4.a.5.some.6.some.7.some.8.a.9.some.10.some

(20 points, 5/item)

a cup of tea. 2. A loaf of bread. 3. A bottle of water. 4. A bowl of soup.

(30 points, 6/item)

There is a peach on the table. 2. There isn’t any cake on the plate. 3. There is some flour in the box. 4. Is there any ice cream in the freezer? 5. He ate a banana for a snack.

Appendix E

Post-test on Nouns

Evaluation and Answer Key

6th GRADE

There are no additional points than those mentioned.

Total 90 marks plus 10 additional points.

(20 points, 2/item)

2.a.3.some.4.a.5.a.6.some.7.some.8.a.9.some.10.some.11.a

(30 points, 2/item)

2.Two cups of coffee, please.3. Two cans of soda, please.4.Two pieces of chocolate cake, please.5. Two bowls of vegetable soup, please. 6. Two glasses/bottles of water, please.7. Two dishes of ice cream, please.8. Two pieces of apple pie, please. 9.Two bottles/cartons of milk.10. a hamburger.11.a piece of apple pie.12. a cup of coffee.13.a bowl of vegetable soup.14.a hamburger.15. a piece of apple pie.16 a cup of coffee.

(20 points, 2/item)

1.There is some pepper in the cabinet.2.There are some potatoes in the cabinet.3.There are some onions in the cabinet. 4. There is some flour in the cabinet. 5.There is some sugar in the cabinet.6.There are some cookies in the cabinet.7.There are some crackers in the cabinet.8. There is some rice in the cabinet.9. There is some tea in the cabinet.10. There is some oil in the cabinet. 11.There is some coffee in the cabinet.

(20 points, 4/item)

Some/a bottle of water.3. some/a kilo of rice.4. two pieces/bars of chocolate. 5. A cup of tea.6. a piece/a kilo of cheese