Uncountable Nouns In English And Romanian

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I General Classification of Nouns in English and Romanian…………………..………p.3

Classification of English Nouns………………………………………………………….p.3

Classification of Romanian Nouns……………………………………………………….p.8

CHAPTER II English and Romanian Nouns- A Comparative Perspective………………….….….p.11

2.1 Singularia Tantum……………………………………………………………………….p.12

2.2 Pluralia Tantum…………………………………………………………………………p.14

CHAPTER III Methods of Teaching Uncountable Nouns……………………………….….p.

3.1 General principles of teaching grammar…………………………………………p.

3.2 Principles of Communicative Language Teaching………………………………p.

3.3 Grammar and Communicative Language Teaching…………………………….p.

3.4 Classroom activities to teach uncountable nouns………………………………p.

3.5 Lesson Project (English)………………………………………………………..p.

3.6 Lesson Project (Romanian)……………………………………………………..p.

Final conclusions……………………………………………………………………………….p.

FOREWORD

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

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

This paper provides a theoretical basis for the topic as well as a practical one. Of course, grammarians dedicate a quite vast area of their works to nouns so the theory comprised here does not bring novelty elements, although I have striven to make some comparisons and to illustrate their differences in opinion when there was the case.

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

CHAPTER I

GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF NOUNS

IN ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN

Classification of English nouns:

Definition of nouns. Classifications

Definition: A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, an abstract idea (woman, cat, house, table, love).

Classifications:

There are several classifications of the English nouns, taking into account a diversity of criteria. In their turn, grammarians have their own priorities in distinguishing different types of nouns.

After the degree of individualization we can have: common nouns – referring to a person,

place or thing in a general sense (boy, valley, flower);

A second category is that of the proper nouns which are used for particular persons, things, places, ideas considered to be unique and are spelt with a capital letter (Mary, Paris)

Types of common nouns:

– appellative nouns – designate an element of a category: table, dog;

Your books are on a table.

She used to take her dog out every evening.

The pencil on the desk is mine.

Her grandmother gave her an apple and an orange.

– collective nouns – nouns naming a group of things, animals or persons. The group is considered as a whole: people, army, audience, board, cabinet, class, committee, company,
and corporation, group, majority, society.

People are mean.

The audience applauded a lot.

The group decided to leave the country as soon as possible.

The majority voted for the banning of fast food.

From another point of view, they can be:

concrete nouns – which name anything (or anyone) that you can perceive through your physical senses ( touch, sight, taste, hearing, or smell): wood, scent;

Touch wood!

The scent of the roses spread in the entire room.

The taste of her soup was delicious.

The smell of oil near gas stations is something usual.

abstract nouns- an abstract noun is a noun which names anything which you cannot perceive through your senses, and is the opposite of a concrete noun: peace, worry, love, hatred, loneliness, sadness, happiness, anger, ire, wrath, fun, education, courage, bravery, ability, optimism, pessimism, luck, fortune, religion, valor, opportunity, faith, hope, contempt, duplicity, need, want.

Peace brings stability in a country.

Love makes people better.

The importance of education is immense.

Her exuberance made her very popular among her school friends.

Common nouns may be either countable or uncountable.

A countable noun (or count noun) is a noun with both a singular and a plural form, and it names anything (or anyone) that you can count (page)

A non-countable noun (or mass noun) is a noun which does not have a plural form, and which refers to something that you could not usually count (sugar).

Constantin Paidos classifies common nouns as:

Common countable: concrete: a boy, a book

abstract: a dream, an idea

The boys are playing football.

I bought a new book.

When I was a child I used to have the same dream for years.

He is very smart! He always has great ideas!

Common uncountable: concrete : bread, milk

abstract: hate, advice

There is no bread left.

We also have to buy milk, sugar and rice.

Her advice is always useful.

We shouldn’t miss this opportunity!

Proper nouns are used to designate:

personal names: Kerry

I told Kerry to meet me in front of the cinema.

John dropped out of college and got a job as a waiter.

Mary used to read a lot when she was a student.

titles: Queen Victoria

The reign of Queen Victoria was a period of peace and stability in England.

The royal family invited Lord John to the ball.

King Mihai visits the castle in Sãvârșin every year.

calendar items – months, days of the week, festivals: Sunday, Christmas

We always go to church on Sundays.

Thanksgiving Day is an opportunity to meet my entire family.

Her favorite holiday was Christmas.

We used to have evening classes every Thursday.

geographical names (countries, continents, lakes, oceans, rivers, seas): the Black Sea

The Black Sea could be an attractive tourist attraction for the foreigners if the prices were lower and the conditions offered were better.

He was advised not to sail across the Atlantic Ocean.

Germany is well known in Europe for the car industry.

The Danube passes through ten countries and finally flows into the Black Sea.

titles of books, newspapers, institutions: The Rainbow, The United Nations Organization, The Times

Romania is part of the United Nations Organization.

His article on globalization was published in “The Times”.

Charles Dickens used to say that David Copperfield was his first love.

names of nationalities and languages: English, Italian

They say German is difficult to learn.

They always have pizza when we go to a restaurant. They simply love Italian food!

She speaks three languages: English, French and Hungarian.

others: Titanic, Romanticism.

The Titanic sank in the ocean on the 14th April 1912 after hitting an iceberg.

Romanticism was an artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that originated in Europe toward the end of the 18th century.

The Elizabethan Age is also known as the Age of Shakespeare.

Nouns can be classified as: simple- they cannot be divided into words-parts of speech): day, plane

His hobby was to draw planes.

The old lady walks her dog every day.

They were watching a movie when I arrived home.

They got on like a house on fire.

Another category is that of the compound nouns (when two or three parts of speech are combined): bedroom, mother-in-law

He didn’t get on well with his mother-in-law.

They are painting their bedroom this weekend.

Alas, the poor speechwriter. I knew him well.

Poetry is the mother tongue of the human race.

If we take into account the origin and development of words we can distinguish between: nouns formed by nominalization ( conversion) –converted nouns- verbs, adjectives, adverbs

can be turned into nouns:

Do the rich understand the problem of the poor?

Tom’s hobby is travelling.

The ups and the downs of life.

Another category is that of the nouns formed by affixation – using prefixes and suffixes: anteroom, disability, nonsense; adoption, activity, boyhood.

He was asked to wait in the anteroom.

Susan’s favorite activity is reading.

She has a happy childhood.

A third category is that of the nouns formed by contraction – contracted nouns

by using aphaeresis: gum (instead of chewing gum); car (motor-car), bus (omnibus)

He takes the bus to get to work.

He never drives his car at high speed.

Stop chewing that gum! It’s annoying!

by using syncope- gov’nor (instead of governor);

The gov’nor decided to cancel the meeting.

May I open the window, Ma’am?

His entire fam’ly was present at the ceremony.

by using apocope: lab, exam, pub (instead of laboratory, examination, public house)

She has failed three exams until now.

He is working in his lab at the moment.

They used to go out in pubs every Friday afternoon.

– formed by abbreviation- it is a particular aspect of contraction, consisting of a letter or a group of letters taken from the word or phrase. Abbreviated nouns: Mr., Mrs., M.P.

Mr. Barry was the president of the committee.

Mrs. Black owned a small cottage near the lake.

The M.P’s decided that the law should be banned.

– formed by deflexion – derivation by changing a vowel: song (from to sing); loss (from to lose); strength (from strong)

“Absolute Beginners” is one of my favorite songs.

The loss of her son changed her entire life.

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.

According to the content and grammatical regime we can divide the nouns into:

Individual Nouns, which can be individual proper nouns and defective individual nouns;

Unique Nouns, which can be divided into: proper noun equivalents, nouns of material, and unique abstract nouns and abstractions;

Collective Nouns which fall into the following categories: collective proper nouns; nouns of multitude; and individual nouns of multitude.

The first category of nouns includes individual nouns:

a) Individual Nouns Proper designate an object/ more objects from a class; have singular and plural; they are countable: e.g. table, book, and whale.

The book is on the table.

The books, representing writers from Egypt, Brazil, Europe, Canada and the United States, will explore what it means to belong, a theme that transcends many cultures and experiences.

b) Defective-Individual Nouns represent a variety of Individual Nouns Proper; have only plural form, rarely singular; can be counted only using numeratives and not numerals: a pair of, two pairs of…; some of them cannot use numeratives either: bowels

Defective-Individual Nouns that have only plural designate: instruments and tools: compasses , glasses, spectacles; articles of dress: trousers, shorts

Grandpa always forgets where he puts his glasses.

He bought a pair of black trousers.

Don’t forget to take the compasses too!

He wore spectacles since he was a little boy.

Defective-Individual Nouns that have only singular: advice, information

Her advice is always useful.

The police needed more information in order to solve the case.

Curiosity killed the cat!

Goodness is a rare quality nowadays.

The second category of nouns deals with unique nounsng writers from Egypt, Brazil, Europe, Canada and the United States, will explore what it means to belong, a theme that transcends many cultures and experiences.

b) Defective-Individual Nouns represent a variety of Individual Nouns Proper; have only plural form, rarely singular; can be counted only using numeratives and not numerals: a pair of, two pairs of…; some of them cannot use numeratives either: bowels

Defective-Individual Nouns that have only plural designate: instruments and tools: compasses , glasses, spectacles; articles of dress: trousers, shorts

Grandpa always forgets where he puts his glasses.

He bought a pair of black trousers.

Don’t forget to take the compasses too!

He wore spectacles since he was a little boy.

Defective-Individual Nouns that have only singular: advice, information

Her advice is always useful.

The police needed more information in order to solve the case.

Curiosity killed the cat!

Goodness is a rare quality nowadays.

The second category of nouns deals with unique nouns: which are uncountable; they represent unique things or quantities.

a) Proper- Noun Equivalents are similar to proper nouns; they are not representatives of a class of objects; cannot be generalized; not used in the plural: e.g. the sun, the earth, the moon, the world, the present, nature, hell.

The sun rises in the East.

The Earth is also called the Blue Planet.

No one knows what the future might bring; we have to enjoy the present.

b) Nouns of Material, Material Nouns, which refer to substances, matters; cannot be counted, but they are regarded quantitatively; have only singular: sugar, salt, meat; can be used in the plural as “stylistic plurals”: waters, sands, snows or as varieties of a material: steels, salts; some have only plural forms: victuals; dregs.

We ran out of sugar.

Pass me the salt, please!

He doesn’t eat meat at all!

She always loved to sunbathe on the sands of the Mediterranean.

c) Unique Abstract Nouns and Abstractions are regarded only as a single notion (used in the singular): literature, history, science; include abstractions: whiteness, friendship, singing, resting, realism (used in the singular, as well); some of them can be used in the plural as “stylistic plurals”: my respects or as varieties of a certain notion: literatures – the literatures of the world; friendships; some can be used exclusively in the plural (names of sciences ending in –s: physics, mathematics, ballistics; names of diseases: measles, mumps; names of some games: billiards; draughts.)

The agreement for this last category is in the singular.

Her friendship means a lot to me.

History offers us a lot of examples of what we shouldn’t do in the future.

Her hobby was singing.

 Scientific realism and Realism in the arts are two of a number of different senses the words take in other fields. In this broad sense Realism frequently contrasts with Idealism.

In the third category of nouns we include the collective nouns, which are regarded as a whole

a) Collective Nouns Proper: although they have a singular form, they express the idea of plurality; the speaker refers to the component elements: family (members of the family); government, audience, parliament, people (all the persons who live in a particular place or belong to a particular country, race); their agreement: in the plural or in the singular if they are included in the initial category (individual nouns.)

Family is the most important influence on young adults.

My family are very close.

The government is dealing with important international issues at the moment.

The government are voting a new law.

b) Nouns of Multitude they represent a variety of Collective Nouns Proper; the difference is that their agreement is exclusively in the plural and they have determinants in the plural; can be preceded by numerals: people (persons in general); poultry; 3,000 cattle;

People are mean!

3,000 cattle have been sold today.

Poultry is a category of domesticated birds kept by humans for the purpose of collecting their eggs, or killing for their meat and/or feathers.

c) Individual Nouns of Multitude can be used as individual nouns as well as nouns of plurality, depending on the speaker’s intention: fish (with the meaning in the singular or plural); trout (with the meaning in the singular or plural) ; deer (with the meaning in the singular or plural); their agreement is in the singular or plural:

Fish swim. Fishes swim.

A fish, two fish, two fishes.

Where are the second pair?

Anyway, not all the nouns can be included just in one category. For example, proper nouns may also include a group of individuals: the Browns, the Romanians or abstract nouns may turn into concrete nouns when they denote concrete objects: a beauty.

As one can notice, specialist literature offers a large span of classifications as far as nouns are concerned but on the whole we can assert the fact that teachers should have solid knowledge about the characteristics of different types of the above mentioned part of speech. Consequently, this knowledge represents a starting point and a strong basis for pupils’ awareness in recognizing and integrating nouns in more complex grammatical structures.

1.2. Classification of Romanian nouns:

In Romanian, the noun is seen as a flexible part of speech naming objects (copac, casa), things (stilou, scaun), actions (alergare), physical characteristics (frumusete ,forta), moral characteristics (rautate, inteligenta), relationships (prietenie, colegialitate, dusmanie), states (bucurie, suparare, tristete). The noun is one of the main parts of speech within the morphological values of the category of which the adjectives and the numerals are part of, which is the noun category.

The noun is an independent part of speech able to include determinants (adjectives or numerals) and of being replaced by pronouns, that is why the noun class is a semantical autonomy class with a sufficient lexical sense.

The noun class enriches the Romanian lexic by its derived words and also by its compounds.

Types of nouns

Criteria of classification of the noun:

-by its meaning:

a. common nouns, naming objects of the same type: student, book, rain , home, town, teacher.

My brother is a student.

(Fratele meu este student.)

This is my English teacher.

(Acesta este profesorul/profesoara meu/mea de engleza.)

The books are on the shelf.

(Cãrțile sunt pe raft.)

b. proper nouns, naming some objects in order to separate them from others: Georgescu, Braila, Mures, Luceafarul.

Georgescu was a well respected man in this community.

(Georgescu a fost un om apreciat in aceasta comunitate.)

The river Mures passes through the town Arad.

(Raul Mures trece prin orasul Arad.)

We have visited our cousins from Braila.

(I-am vizitat pe verisorii nostri din Braila.)

c. some common nouns can become proper nouns: Trandafir, Croitoru, Tamplaru.

Mr. Trandafir was a teacher.

(Domnul Trandafir a fost profesor.)

“Tamplaru” is the name of the company where you can buy furniture from.

(“Tamplaru” este numele firmei de la care poti cumpara mobila.)

-by its structure:

a. simple nouns formed with one word: fata, scoala, Arges, mierla, Ion.

That girl is my sister.

(Fata aceea este sora mea.)

“Ion” is the name of a well-known novel.

(“Ion” este numele unui roman foarte cunoscut.)

Arges is my hometown.

(Arges este orasul in care m-am nascut.)

b. compound nouns formed of two or more words: bunavointa, binefacere, Stefan Cel Mare, Campul Lung, Piatra Neamt, floarea-soarelui.

Piatra Neamt is a very beautiful town.

(Piatra Neamt este un oras foarte frumos.)

We use to admire the fields full of sun-flowers.

(Obisnuiam sa admiram campurile pline de floarea-soarelui.)

Stephan the Great reigned between 1457 și 1504.

(Stefan cel Mare a domnit intre anii 1457 si 1504.)

The gender of the nouns

masculine nouns: Un elev (singular) – doi elevi (plural);

A student was reading the story. The other students were listening.

(Un elev citea povestea. Ceilalti elevi ascultau.)

feminine nouns: O eleva (singular) – doua eleve (plural);

She is the best girl in the team.

(Ea este cea mai buna fata din echipa.)

Two girls were swimming in the sea.

(Doua fete inotau in mare.)

neutral nouns: Un scaun (singular) – doua scaune (plural).

Bring me a chair!

(Adu-mi un scaun!)

Those two chairs are broken.

(Acele doua scaune sunt rupte.)

The epic nouns have just one form for the masculine and for the feminine: elefant, tantar, pastrav, camila, libelula, veverita, cuc, greier.

There are many mosquitoes near lakes and rivers.

(Sunt multi tantari langa lacuri si rauri.)

The elephants are capable of love.

(Elefantii sunt capabili sa iubeasca.)

I have seen camels at the zoo.

(Am vazut camile la gradina zoologica.)

The mobile nouns are the nouns that have a form for the masculine and another for the feminine: profesor, muncitor/profesoara, muncitoare.

Unchiul meu este profesor.

Fiica mea doreste sa devina profesoara.

El este muncitor intr-o fabrica.

Muncitoarelor li s-a permis astazi sa place mai repede.

In English we use the same work “teacher” or “worker” for both genders.

The process by which the feminine nouns are formed from masculine nouns and all the way round, is called motion.

The number:

singular, designates one object or one being: frate, casa, tablou.

His brother was a well known doctor.

(Fratele lui era un medic foarte cunoscut.)

This house is haunted.

(Casa aceasta este bantuita.)

b. plural, designates two or more objects or beings: frati, case, tablouri.

His brothers were well known doctors.

(Fratii lui erau medici foarte cunoscuti.)

These houses are haunted.

(Casele aceseta sunt bantuite.)

Number defective nouns:

A. They have forms only for the singular (singularia tantum):

a.1. Common nouns:

-names of materia: lapte, unt, miere, mazare, secara, tabla, lana, vata

-sport terms: fotbal, sah, handbal

-abstract names, expressing different features and physiologicaly states of mind: cinste, curaj, bunatate, lene, sete.

We have to buy milk and butter.

(Trebuie sa cumparam lapte si unt.)

This blouse is made of wool.

(Bluza aceasta este din lana.)

Goodness is a rare quality.

(Bunatatea e o calitate rara.)

Football is a national sport in some countries.

(Fotbalul este sport national in unele tari.)

a.2. Proper nouns:

-names of persons: Gigel, Costel, Ioana.

-georgraphical names: Banat, Olt, Ceahlau, Bacau.

Gigel and Costel are my brothers-in-law.

(Gigel si Costel sunt cumnatii mei.)

Bucharest is the capital of Romania.

(Bucuresti este capital Romaniei.)

The Danube flows into the Black Sea.

(Dunarea curge in Marea Neagra.)

B. They have forms only for the plural (pluralia tantum):

b.1. Common nouns: calti, icre, zori, ochelari, taitei;

b.2. Proper nouns: Bugeti, Carpati.

The Carpathians are worth visiting.

(Muntii Carpati sunt demni de vizitat.)

He forgot his spectacles at home.

(El si-a uitat ochelarii acasa.)

They have never eaten roe.

(Ei nu au mancat niciodata icre.)

C. The nouns have multiple forms both for the plural and for the singular:

c.1. Multiple forms for the plural

– nouns with the same meaning: boli-boale, coli-coale

– nouns with different meanings: cornuri( produse de panificatie), coarne(la animale), corni(la arbusti), capi(conducatori, sefi), capete(extremitati ale unor obiecte), capuri(termeni geografici)

In zilele noastre foarte multe boli sunt cauzate de stress.

Batrana suferea de multe boale.

Am mancat doua cornuri.

Au inceput sa-i creasca coarne tapului.

c.2. Nouns with multiple forms for the singular: foarfec-foarfece, oaspete-oaspe, pantec-pantece.

Nu a venit decat un oaspe pana acum. Oaspetele a fost invitat la masa.

Poarta un copil in pantec/pantece.

The collective nouns name objects of the same type: stol, grup, studentime, pietris, porumbiste etc.

She saw a flock of birds.

(A vazut un stol de pasari.)

The group decided to leave later.

(Grupul a decis sa plece mai tarziu.)

As one can notice, specialist literature offers a large span of classifications as far as nouns are concerned but on the whole we can assert the fact that teachers should have solid knowledge about the characteristics of different types of the above mentioned part of speech. Consequently, this knowledge represents a starting point and a strong basis for pupils’ awareness in recognizing and integrating nouns in more complex grammatical structures.

The new Romanian grammar is remarkable for its profound reorganizations, more or less justified and a visible reconsideration, both of morphology and especially of syntax.

People who are not conversant with the subtlety of the English language can't easily the origin of these changes but for a graduate, the English influence upon the new Romanian approach is obvious.

The inclusion of some parts, of speech in types of classics is a structuralist idea initiated in 1933 by Bloomfield who suggest that parts of speech should framed into morphological classes and he names for types of classes: words-nouns, words-verbs, words-adjectives, words-adverbs, the other parts of speech been considered functional words meant to help the classes of words function accordingly.

As a conclusion we can say that the analysis of countable and uncountable nouns in these pages has shown us that nouns cannot be divided into two classes of countable and uncountable nouns; some nouns have countable syntactic properties, others have uncountable nouns; some nouns have semantic properties, while other nouns are ‘in between’ cases having characteristics countable properties and some uncountable properties. There exist pure mass nouns and pure count nouns, ‘in-between’ these two clear classes there is a group of nouns that will be ‘more or less mass nouns or ‘more or less’ count nouns. (Ștefanescu, I. 1984, pag. 63).

CHAPTER II

ENGLISH AND ROMANIAN NOUNS

A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE

Many material things and many phenomena, both natural and psychological are uncountable by their very nature.

The number is the grammatical category of the nouns that shows the distinction between one item and two or more items of the same object class or entity. Most of the nouns in both Romanian and English belong to the class of countable nouns which have distinct forms for expressing singular and plural. The other nouns that cannot be counted belong to the class of uncountable nouns that have either a singular form (called singularia tantum) or a plural form (called pluralia tantum). The meaning of the nouns changes when they are rarely used as countable nouns. The most common categories of uncountables are: gases, fluids, food, natural phenomena, materials (with particles too small to count), metals, cereals, abstractions, fields of study, other intangibles.

Some of the nouns in both languages studied do not usually have a flexion dependent on the category of number, as they posses a single form, either for singular or for plural. They denote objects whose existence we perceive only as a unique item of the category, on one side, and, on the other side, there are others whose existence we perceive as a multiplicity of items of the same category. The linguistics studies usually name these classes of nouns as singularia tantum and pluralia tantum. Because of their single form, the uncountable nouns can be considered either singular or plural. Both in Romanian and in English there are more classes of uncountable nouns that are rather singularia tantum than pluralia tantum.

Singularia Tantum

The singularia tantum nouns are those nouns that have only a single form, the singular one as the name suggests it, and that always agree with the verb of the sentence at singular, in Romanian, and sometimes even at plural, in English.

The singularia tantum category includes the following situations:

a) proper nouns that denote persons, names of animals, names of places: Ion, Alexandra, Marius, Jack, Rita, România; Paris, Londra, The Black Sea (Marea Neagrã).

In Romanian as well as in English, the family names can have a plural form when they refer to the members of the respective family: Popeștii, Tãtarii; the Smiths, the Blacks. We notice that in both languages the proper nouns can have a definite article, enclitically positioned in Romanian (-i), and a definite article proclitically positioned in English (the). The agreement between such family name nouns and the predicate of the sentence is done at plural:

Ioneștii mi-au plãcut întotdeauna.

The Jones have sold their car last week.

(Familia Jones și-a vândut mașina sãptãmâna trecutã.)

At the expressive level, there are exceptions regarding the names of towns, cities and countries that, in the literate people language, can sometimes have a plural form: cele douã Franțe, cele doua Londre; the two Americas (cele doua Americi).

b) common nouns that denote notions belonging to the conceptual level, that is abstract nouns that denote features, status, feelings and qualities (cinste, barbarie; pity (mila), wisdom (înțelepciune), shame (rușine)):

S-a bucurat de o mare cinste în rândul satenilor.

He showed much pity and offered to give us a helping hand.

(El si-a aratat mila si s-a oferit sa ne dea o mâna de ajutor.)

Her wisdom amazed the whole audience.

(Întelepciunea ei a uimit întreaga audienta.)

Some of the nouns without plural but having an abstract meaning can have the plural form when they are used in their concrete meanings: bunãtate – bunatãți; beauty (frumusete) – beauties (frumuseti) etc.

Another category of singularia tantum abstract nouns is made of those abstract nouns that denote doctrines, subjects and schools of thinking: arta, chimie; classicism, poetry (poezie), realism (realism), biology (biologie) etc.

Clasicismul este perioada pe care micii mei elevi o îndragesc cel mai mult.

Art makes people better.

(Arta îi face pe oameni mai buni.)

As far as the abstract nouns denoting names of subjects are concerned, they can have also a plural form, but once they have it there is a semantic change as well, the meaning of the word becoming the one of a variety of books used for that subjects :

The biologies are on the top shelf in the library.

(Cartile de biologie sunt pe primul raft de sus din biblioteca.)

Don’t forget your chemistries at home.

(Nu-ti uita acasa cartile de chimie.)

We must also identify there are abstract nouns that have only a singular form in English while they have the two forms in Romanian: advice (sfat), abuse (abuz), applause (aplauze), business (afacere), evidence (dovada), laughter (râs), information (informa_ie), knowledge (cunostințe), homework (tema), shopping (cumparaturi) etc.

In English they have a global meaning but when we want to refer to only one of the composing elements we can use the constructions a piece of (un/ o) or an item of (un/ o), according to the context. Thus, in an informal language a piece of is usually used, while an item of is more appropriate for a formal language:

Give me a piece of advice, please!

(Da-mi un sfat, te rog!)

What the manager demands is an item of information.

(Ceea ce solicita directorul este doar o informație.)

c) nouns that denote names of materials: aur, miere; sugar (zahar), milk (lapte). Many names of materials can also have a plural form if they denote sorts or certain portions of that material:

Aurul este bogația țarii noastre.

He likes coffee with no sugar but he hates milk and honey.

(Îi place cafeaua fara zahar, dar uraste laptele cu miere.)

Am gasit în pod multe aramuri de pe vremea bunicii.

He decided to buy nothing but two beers.

(S-a definit sa nu cumpere nimic în afara de doua beri.)

d) nouns that denote sports and games: tenis, sah; basketball (baschet), pool (billiard), dominoes (domino), darts (dart), draughts ( joc de dame), ninepins (popice):

Tenisul de masa s-a dezvoltat spectaculos în ultimii cinci ani.

Basketball involves more than height and physical force.

(Baschetul înseamna mai mult decât înalțime si forța fizica.)

e) nouns that denote illnesses can be used at plural only when they refer to different types or varieties of that illness: amigdalita, rahitism; measles (pojar), mumps (oreion), shingles (zona zoster):

Rahitismul trebuie tratat imediat ce este descoperit.

Mumps is difficult to diagnose in the early stages.

(Oreionul este greu de diagnosticat în faza incipienta.)

The plural defective nouns, called singularia tantum, denote entities that cannot be seen as unique entities from the point of view of their content. Some of the singularia tantum nouns can have plural forms in different contexts but then they refer only to different types and sorts of the respective entity, not to the entity at its generic meaning.

Pluralia Tantum

The pluralia tantum nouns are those uncountable nouns that have only a plural form and they agree with the nouns at plural. Those nouns denote elements that are made of two identical parts which cannot be separated, on one side, or elements that are so well stuck together that they cannot be divided into smaller components.

The category of pluralia tantum includes the following types of nouns existing both in Romanian and in English:

a) names of mountain chains: Urali; the Carpathians (Carpații), the Balkans (Balcanii) etc.

Uralii sunt situați în Rusia.

Where are the Carpathians? I’m not very sure.

(Unde se afla Carpa_ii? Nu sunt prea sigura.)

b) names of objects made of two equal parts, either tools or clothes: chiloti, foarfece, ochelari, pantaloni; pliers (clesti), shorts (pantaloni scurti), pyjamas (pijamale), tongs (cleste), shears (foarfece), pincers (cleste), bellows (foale), glasses (ochelari), binoculars (binoclu), tights (pantaloni de balet), knickers (pantaloni scurti), breeches (pantaloni de calorie), drawers (indispensabili):

Pantalonii au costat mai mult decât ochelarii.

My glasses are on the table, next to your scissors.

(Ochelarii mei sunt pe masa, lânga foarfecele tale.)

The nouns that denote objects made of two parts can be counted using o pereche, a pair of (o pereche): o pereche de sosete; a pair of trousers (o pereche de pantaloni).

Besides these two types of pluralia tantum nouns that we find in both analyzed languages, each language has other types of nouns, specific only to that language and that have only a plural form.

For example, in Romanian the toponyms formed with the -esti, -ani and –eni suffixes are considered pluralia tantum: Bucuresti, Ploiesti, Petrosani. The plural forms are explained by the fact that the semantics of the name is still analysed and it means “descendants of …”.

Within the class of uncountable nouns, having only a plural form, there is another subclass made of names of botanic species and names of animals and plants classe: zorele, clopotei, cefalopode etc.

The last subclass of pluralia tantum nouns that we find only in Romanian is represented by the nouns that appear only in some expressions such as: mendrele (a-si face mendrele), șosele (cu șosele) etc.

In English we notice the existence of other classes of pluralia tantum nouns that always agree with the verb at plural. The first class of such nouns that we do not find in Romanian is that of nouns usually ended in -s. Some of these nouns belong to the class of variable nouns in Romanian.

Among the nouns that have only a plural form in English we mention: annals (anale), bowels (intestine), colours (drapel), damages (despagubiri), fireworks (artificii), manners (bune maniere), savings (economii), surroundings (împrejurimi) etc. All these nouns have a plural form in Romanian, as well. We continue with a set of examples of nouns which are pluralia tantum in English but they are countable in Romanian: archives (arhiva), customs (vama), earnings (câstig), goods (marfa), minutes (proces verbal), outskirts (periferie), wages (salariu) etc.

Some of these pluralia tantum nouns can be sometimes easily confused with the plural form of certain countable nouns. Each of these two forms has a different meaning. The most usual such situations are shown in the table below:

Fortunately we had an insignifiant damage to one of the pipes.

(Din fericire am avut o avarie minora la una dintre conducte.)

Unfortunately, we had several damages to the pipes.

(Din nefericire am avut mai multe avarii la conducta.)

We asked for damages situation report.

(Am solicitat procesul verbal cu situa_ia despagubirilor.)

Put the glass into the sink.

(Pune paharul în chiuveta.)

The child broke all the glasses from the cupboard.

(Copilul a spart toate paharele din dulap.)

Where are my glasses?

(Unde îmi sunt ochelarii?)

The second class of pluralia tantum nouns is that of nouns that do not mark the plural. They have only a plural meaning, even if they are not formally marked for this number: clergy (preotimea), people (poporul), youth (tineretul), police (politia).

The youth gather in the square to celebrate New Year’s Eve.

(Tineretul s-a adunat în piata sa sarbatoreasca revelionul.)

The police were looking for the robber but they haven’t caught him yet.

(Politia cauta tâlharul, dar înca nu l-au gasit.)

A third class of pluralia tantum nouns are the substantivized adjectives and participles such as: the injured (ranitii), the poor (saracii), the disabled (handicapatii) etc.

The rich never accept a poor among them.

(Bogatii nu aceepta niciodata un sarac în rândul lor.)

The injured were moved to another hospital as there were no more free beds there.

(Cei raniti au fost mutati la alt spital deoarece nu mai erau paturi libere acolo.)

The uncountable nouns are though fewer than they seem to be if we take into consideration the “exceptions” when the number is however used even if it is usually absent. The status of the invariable nouns is still not strict as some nouns vary from having a single form to two different forms for singular and plural. As shown before, there is a difference in meaning according to the noun being considered countable or uncountable.

As a conclusion of this brief presentation of the uncountable nouns, we can notice that most classes of such nouns are similar in Romanian and English. We insisted more on the different noun classes in the two languages, words that are singularia tantum in English for example, but they are countable in Romanian (advice (sfat), abuse (abuz), business (afacere), evidence (evidența), information (informație), shopping (cumparaturi)) etc. When we want to focus on a particular component of such a noun, we use the construction a piece of, an item of, according to the context. The class of pluralia tantum contains two different components: a group of nouns that are pluralia tantum in both languages (names of mountains Ural, the Carpathians, names of objects made of two parts foarfece, ochelari; scissors, glasses, etc.) and another one that does not rely on this similitude bowles (intestine/intestin), damages (despagubiri/ despagubire) etc. Another important aspect that we had in view was the possibility to take a pluralia tantum noun for the plural form of a countable noun: colour (culoare) – colours (culori)/ colours (drapel); effect – effects (efecte)/effects („haine“); glass – glasses (pahare)/glasses (ochelari) etc. Some nouns are pluralia tantum without being marked by any desinence (clergy, people, youth, police), but they request the agreement with the verb at plural. The same syntactic behaviour is specific for pluralia tantum nouns that come from adjectives and participles: the disabled (handicapații), the injured (raniții), the poor (sãracii) etc. We also emphasized the idea that being countable or uncountable is not something extremely strict as the situational context may have such a big influence that a change of form and meaning appears seldom.

CHAPTER III

METHODS OF TEACHING UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

3.1. General principles of teaching grammar

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

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

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

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

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

Anyway, if little or much grammar is being presented to the pupils, there are some basic principles that the teacher should not ignore. Scott Thornbury organizes them according to the following directions:

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

The A-Factor : Appropriacy

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

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

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

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

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

– the age of the learners;

– their level;

– the size of the group;

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

– the learners’ interests;

– the available materials and resources;

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

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

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

3.2 Principles of Communicative Language Teaching

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

These principles can be summarized as follows:

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

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

learning to communicate is achieved through interaction in the target language.

even if the main focus is on meaning and not on form, CLT encourages learners

to produce grammatically correct sentences (since grammar as well as pronunciation and vocabulary are, of course, necessary parts of effective communication). These sentences should be integrated in the appropriate context in order to achieve a communicative purpose.

in a 'communicative' classroom, the teacher cannot really predict what language is to be used by the learners because they will be engaged in 'natural' language activity—whether reading, listening, speaking or writing.

the formal properties of language are never treated in isolation from use; language forms are always addressed within a communicative context so the teacher should provide the students with bits of language practised in context.

learners are encouraged to discover the forms and structures of the language for themselves.

the four traditional language skills (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) are integrated.

the 'communicative' classroom also promotes techniques that encourage student participation.

It is, therefore, not a teacher-dominated classroom but one in which there is great deal of group work, pair work, role play and simulation. The teacher’s role is not that of a judge so the environment for a “communicative” classroom is a supportive one.

errors are tolerated as a natural part of the process of language acquisition. This is the

cardinal principle of CLT. Fluency, rather than mere grammatical accuracy, would be the main concern of a communicatively oriented teacher. Such a teacher realizes that learners cannot help but make grammatical mistakes when engaged in a fluency activity like a group discussion. The teacher will therefore resist the temptation to correct a student's grammar or pronunciation during a communicative activity.

3.3 Grammar and Communicative Language Teaching

Taking into consideration the above principles, which is the relation between grammar and CLT? Can one find closeness between these two issues? The answer is “definitely yes”.

Grammar is seen as the process of choosing forms and constructing language in response to communicative demands. It essentially involves the learner’s creative response to context and circumstance. Someone’s knowledge of grammar implies knowledge of how to recognize structures when spoken, how to identify them when written, how to understand in context and how to produce meaningful sentences.

Grammar should be taught using all four language skills so that the students would be able to produce structures for oral and written communication, but at the same time to comprehend structures while listening or reading. The instructor will design a variety of activities directed to both form and communication. This diversity will enable students to concentrate in turn on increasing the level of language accuracy or developing fluency in English.

Grammar errors should be corrected when grammar is the focus of an activity or when comprehensibility is strongly affected. The teacher needs to pay attention not to overcorrect as this could discourage students and communication could be impeded.

Assessments should be made regarding pupils’ ability to use structures in the context of real-life tasks, according to the present instructional level of the trainees. The type of the assessment – oral or written – should depend on whether the focus has been on oral or written communication.

As noticed before, the final goal of teaching grammar facilitates students’ accomplishment of their communication purposes and this goal has the following implications:

– students need overt grammar instruction which connects grammar issues with larger communication contexts, in consonance with the learners’ environment of situational possibilities;

– grammar is a vehicle for communication so the students do not need to master every aspect of grammar, only those that are important or relevant to the immediate communicative task;

– error correction is not always a priority for the instructor.

Consequently, the teacher will deal with the following aspects in giving an overt grammar instruction:

– the teaching process will be carried out in the target language or the students’ first language or both. Good understanding of the grammar points is essential;

– grammar explanations will be limited in time, especially for lower level students;

– presentation of the grammar issues in oral and written ways to address the needs of students with different learning styles;

– the instructor will give examples as teaching tools, in addition to the theoretical component. They should be accurate and appropriate.

In the communicative competence model, the purpose of learning grammar is to increase awareness that grammar is a part of the language. It is important that traditional ways of teaching grammar should not be entirely eliminated but the instructor will teach grammar structures in relation to specific communication task that students need to complete.

Finally, no matter how high is the level of proficiency, learners do not produce language on the same level as native speakers do. Some of the differences are grammatical, others involve different vocabulary in various contexts. In spite of all this, teachers should take into consideration some important directions:

– they should not focus on error correction to the detriment of communication and confidence building.

– if teachers let the students know that they are making errors, this is an opportunity for them to learn from these mistakes so it is an open way to work on improving their knowledge level.

As far as the teacher’s role is concerned, perhaps the most important component is the way in which he/she presents the new items of grammar. This is the key for a successful grammar lesson because presentation – the stage at which students are introduced to the form, meaning and use of a new piece of language – strongly influences pupils’ performance.

According to Jeremy Harmer, there are some characteristics of a good presentation. This should be:

clear – so that students would not have any difficulty in understanding the new issue;

efficient – if students will be able to use the new language applying it to themselves

(personalization stage) in order to talk about things related to their lives or relevant parts of their life experience;

lively and interesting – students will become interested and actively involved during the presentation stage if the teacher provides a good situation for the new item and if the teaching style is alert and appealing;

appropriate – if it represents a helpful vehicle for the presentation of meaning and use;

productive – to lead to a significant number of sentences and / or questions made by students using the new language.

In conclusion, there are a lot of factors influencing the didactic process in teaching grammar. It is extremely important that teachers should take into consideration all these aspects so that the best results could be attained.

3.4 Classroom activities to teach uncountable nouns

Uncountable nouns cannot be taught totally separately from countable nouns. Nevertheless such a lesson is included in the curricula for older students. In this respect, even if the teacher has to insist more on uncountable nouns as being the subject of the class, he/she will permanently make comparison with the other category.

The two modalities of how to teach grammar – deductively or inductively – have already been dealt with previously.

Here are some examples of possibilities of teaching uncountable nouns:

Sample 1: Teaching uncountable nouns using pictures

Level: Intermediate, Beginner (adapted)

Step 1: The teacher prepares a set of pictures representing the following items: cheese, butter, flour, meat, milk, pasta, rice. The teacher shows each picture in turn. He/she says: cheese. The pupils repeat, chorally and individually. The teacher pins up the picture on the board and asks one pupil to write the word. If the pupils do not know the spelling, the teacher does this. The teacher takes the second picture and says: butter. The pupils repeat chorally and individually.

Step 2: The teacher asks the pupils: “Where can you buy cheese, butter, flour, meat, milk…?” and elicits the answer “At the supermarket”. The teacher can induce this answer by using a picture representing a supermarket. Then the teacher says: “My mother goes to the supermarket every month. She buys much cheese every month.” The teacher writes this sentence on the blackboard and highlights the word “much”. Afterwards he/she asks the pupils to repeat the sentence.

Step 3: The teacher asks the children to do the same, drilling them.

Pupil 1: She buys much butter every month.

Pupil 2: She buys much flour every month.

Pupil 3: She buys much meat every month.

Pupil 4: She buys much milk every month.

Pupil 5: She buys much pasta every month.

Pupil 6: She buys much rice every month.

After each sentence, the teacher writes only the food item and the word much, in order to save time. The layout will look like this:

She buys much cheese every month.

much butter

much flour

much meat

much milk

much pasta

much rice

Step 4: The teacher could stop here and give an explanation or go on using a contrastive situation with some countable nouns, which is preferable. The teacher shows the pupils other pictures representing food items. Each picture should illustrate more than one “object”. For example: two tomatoes, three apples, two sausages, six carrots etc. The teacher points to each picture in turn. He/she says: tomatoes. The pupils repeat, chorally and individually. The teacher pins up the picture on the board and asks one pupil to write the word. If the pupils do not know the spelling, the teacher does this. The teacher takes the second picture and says: apples. The pupils repeat chorally and individually.

The teacher asks the pupils: “Where can you buy tomatoes, apples, sausages, carrots….?” and elicits the answer: “At the supermarket”. Then the teacher says: “My mother goes to the supermarket every month. She buys many tomatoes every month.” The teacher writes this sentence on the blackboard and highlights the word “many”. Afterwards he/she asks the pupils to repeat the sentence.

Step 5: The teacher asks the children to do the same, drilling them.

Pupil 1: She buys many apples every month.

Pupil 2: She buys many sausages every month.

Pupil 3: She buys many carrots every month.

After each sentence, the teacher writes only the food item and the word much, in order to save time. The layout will look like this:

She buys many tomatoes every month.

many apples

many sausages

many carrots

Step 6: The teacher explains that many is used with countable nouns (nouns which can be counted) and much with uncountable nouns (which cannot be counted). The teacher could explain the idea of countability using pictures again. He/she shows a picture representing, for example, one onion – two onions.

The teacher may stop and follow the same procedure in another class or continue to demonstrate the contrast a versus some, showing pictures again.

Step 7: The teacher says: “I have a banana”. The pupils repeat, chorally and individually. The teacher pins up the picture on the board and writes the sentence, underlining a. The teacher shows the pupils a picture representing three bananas. The teacher writes the sentence and underlines the ending –S from the word “bananas”. Then the teacher points to another picture and says: “I have some cheese”. The pupils repeat chorally and individually. The teacher writes the sentence, underlining some.

Step 8: The teacher explains that countable nouns can be used in the plural (banana-bananas), while countable cannot. A good demonstration could also be the usage of countable and uncountable nouns with “there is/there are” in order to make the contrast singular-plural more relevant.

Teacher: There is one/a banana on the table.

Teacher: There are two bananas on the table.

Teacher: There is some cheese on the table.

Step 9: The teacher drills the pupils, providing them with prompts, if necessary:

Teacher: pear

Pupil 1: a pear

Teacher: lemon

Pupil 2: a lemon

Teacher: milk

Pupil 3: some milk

Sample 2: Teaching special uncountable nouns using worksheets and translation

Level: Upper Intermediate

Step 1: The teacher distributes some worksheets. He/she explains that it is about some special nouns.

The worksheet begins as follows: Some nouns which are singular and uncountable in English but countable in other languages. These include: accommodation, advice, behavior, furniture, information, knowledge, luck, luggage, money, permission, progress, rubbish, scenery, traffic, trouble, weather, work.

Step 2: Ask the students to say which of these nouns are countable in Romanian. Tell them to look up the words they do not know in the dictionary and complete the above task (task 1).

Step 3: The teacher asks the students to read the examples taken from a grammar book and written on their worksheets. The examples have been accompanied by translation, from the same book:

Example 1: The doctor gave me some good advice: wear a hat.

Translation: Medicul mi-a dat un sfat bun: si port pilirie.

Example 2: The advice he gave us was useful.

Translation: Sfaturile pe care ni le-a dat el au fost utile.

Example 3: It’s a lovely piece of furniture!

Translation: Este o piesi de mobilier/mobili frumoasi!

Example 4: All my furniture was damaged in that flood.

Translation: Toati mobila mea s-a deteriorat \n timpul acelei inunda]ii.

Example 5: I’d like some information about the price of a ticket to Budapest.

Translation: A[ vrea o informa]ie \n legituri cu pre]ul unui bilet pâni la Budapesta.

Example 6: The information provided is not always clear.

Translation: Informa]iile furnizate nu sunt \ntotdeauna clare.

Example 7: ‘How much information did they give you about the journey?’

‘ Not much. Very little, in fact.

Translation: – V-au dat multe informa]ii \n privin]a cilitoriei?

Nu multe. Chiar foarte pu]ine.

Example 8: I’ve only got one piece of luggage. I can carry it myself.

Translation: Nu am decât un singur bagaj. Pot si-l duc singur.

Example 9: My luggage is too heavy. I’ll get a trolley.

Translation: Bagajele mele sunt prea grele. O si iau un cirucior.

Example 10: It was wonderful news to hear that they’d won.

Translation: A fost o veste minunati si aflim ci ei au câ[tigat.

Example 11: The news from the hospital was hopeful.

Translation: Ve[tile de la spital erau \ncurajatoare.

Step 4: The teacher asks the pupils if their assumptions about some nouns on the list have proved to be correct, that is the fact that they are uncountable in English but countable in Romanian. Then he/she says that the translations from their worksheets have been included in order to help them reinforce their beliefs.

The teacher assesses tasks number 1.

Step 5: The teacher asks the following questions:

Are these words in bold (uncountable nouns) preceded by a/an?

What form are the verbs in examples 2, 4, 6, 9, 10 and 11?

What word accompanies the noun advice in example 1, besides the adjective good?

What words accompany the noun information in example 7?

What is the answer to this example?

What noun do these words refer to?

The teacher elicits the following answers:

They are not accompanied by a/an.

The verbs are in the singular.

Some accompanies the noun advice.

How much accompanies the noun information in example 7.

‘Not much. Very little, in fact’.

They refer to the noun information.

Step 6: The teacher asks the pupils to make the rules, out of these answers.

Comments

This type of activity requires preparation from the part of the teacher. The examples included should be carefully chosen to reflect the topic of the lesson but this modality has the advantage of systematizing the knowledge to be taught. The first part of the procedure involves and promotes individual work which is sometimes preferred by older students. In the final part the students receive feed-back and in fact the right answers are induced in a facile manner.

This kind of activity can be used when the teacher considers that the textbook does not offer enough material for an efficient learning. Even if it is time-consuming for the teacher outside the class, the gains are much more significant.

Sample 3: Teaching Too much/too little with uncountable nouns using a generative situation

Level: Upper Intermediate

Step 1: By means of a picture on the board (a drawing, photo or picture cut from a magazine) the teacher introduces a character called Steven. He/she draws a rough calendar, on which Steven has marked his birthday. Pupils can realize that is in 7 days’ time. The teacher shows the pupils other pictures, one presenting a party, another representing some people, eliciting the fact that Steven wants to invite his friends on his birthday party. But Steven is a bachelor and has to take care of the preparation all by himself.

Step 2: The teacher writes on the blackboard a part of Steven’s shopping list:

3 kg of meat

1 kg of cheese

5 loaves of bread

1 packet of coffee

3 bottles of champagne

5 bottles of wine

Step 3: The teacher says that, by mistake , Steven has forgotten the shopping list at home and here is what he has after all. The teacher dictates the items, for a change, and names some pupils to write on the blackboard.

Pupil 1 writes: 4 kg of meat

Pupil 2: 4 loaves of bread

Pupil 3: 1 bottle of champagne

Pupil 4: 6 bottles of wine.

Step 4: The teacher asks the students to compare the two lists.

He/she asks: How much meat has Steven bought?

Pupil 1: He has bought 4 kg meat.

Teacher: Is it enough? Is it too much or too little?

Pupil 1: He has bought too much meat.

Teacher: How much bread has Steven bought?

Pupil 2: He has bought 4 loaves of bread.

Teacher: Is it enough?

Pupil 2: No, he has bought too little bread.

Teacher: How many loaves of bread were on the list?

Pupil 2: 5 loaves of bread.

Teacher: How much champagne has Steven bought?

Pupil 3: He has bought one bottle of champagne.

Teacher: Is it enough?

Pupil 3: No, he has bought too little champagne.

Teacher: How much wine has Steven bought?

Pupil 4: He has bought 6 bottles of wine.

Teacher: Is it enough?

Pupil 4: Yes, but he has bought too much wine.

Teacher: How much coffee has Steven bought?

Pupil 5: No, he hasn’t bought any coffee.

Teacher: Has Steven bought any cheese?

Pupil 6: No, he hasn’t bought any cheese.

Step 5: The teacher writes the essential parts from these dialogues:

too much meat

too little bread

too little champagne

too much wine

The pupils infer the rule that we use too much and too little with uncountable nouns.

Step 6: The pupils could learn or revise the usage of the reverse situations derived from the examples above.

The teacher initiates a pair work activity by asking the pupils to imagine the dialogue between Steven and a friend who he has talked to about this incident.

Friend: You should have bought less meat.

Steven: I know, but I forgot the list at home.

Friend: You should have bought more bread.

Steven: ………………………….

Friend: You should have bought more champagne.

Steven: ……………………………….

Friend: You should have bought less wine.

Steven: ……………………………..

Comments

The situation described is a generative one because the grammar presentation procedure generates several examples of the targeted language item.

By eliciting some of the content of the presentation, the teacher aims both to involve the learners more actively in the lesson, and to monitor their understanding of both the situation and the target language.

The number of examples of the targeted item is at the teacher’s discretion but four of five could be enough for the accuracy of the final rule.

The situational context facilitates the presentation of the language item and the examples used provide the learner with data for induction of the rules so the lesson is done more memorable because it does not offer a dry explanation. Yet, the situation should be well chosen and if this happens, the activity is efficient.

On the other hand, there are some drawbacks: the students may not get the rule or may get the wrong rule; this kind of presentation also takes more time than an explanation and this thing diminishes the period dedicated to practice. Therefore, it is not an economical procedure and neither an easy one. The teacher should to make a special effort (in terms of means and time) to prepare the visual aids and to plan his/her lesson.

I think that this type of activity should be used cautiously but if there is enough time and the level of the class is a good one, it can be used successfully.

When teaching the uncountable nouns in Romanian the teacher can use different types of exercises: short compositions, multiple choice exercises, sentence building a.s.o.

Sample 1: Short composition

Notează o rețetă culinară în care să folosești zece substantive defective de plural.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Sample 2: Sentence building

Alcătuiește enunțuri cu cinci substantive defective de singular.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Scrie cel putin 5 enunțuri cu aceste substantive: blugi, secara, Dunare, icre, zori.

Scrie câte un enunț cu câte un substantiv din fiecare serie.

sporturi:

însușiri:

sentimente:

domenii științifice:

alimente:

Alcătuiește câte o propoziție cu formele de plural ale substantivelor: cap, corn, raport, arc, bandă, plan, element.

Sample 3: Multiple choice

Alegeți seria care conține numai substantive defective de plural:

herghelie, mazăre, vată, aur

sânge, lene, liniște, cinste, curaj

ochelari, Fălticeni, grâu, foame

zahăr, fasole, lene, tărănime

Alegeți seria care conține numai substantive defective de singular:

făget, Târnăveni, Babele, bale

ochelari, blugi, aplauze, fotbal

câlți, miere, șale, aplauze

bale, câlți, aplauze, blugi

Alegeți seria care conține numai substantive colective:

frunziș, stejăriș, tărănime, Ștefănești

frunziș, ochelari, făget, nucet

sticlărie, turmă, trib, câlți

stejăriș, studențime, aluniș, făget

Sample 4: Fill in the gaps

Completează spațiile libere cu substantive defective de plural care denumesc:

sporturi: volei,………………………

însușiri: bunăvoință,……………….

sentimente: milă,…………………..

domenii științifice: informatică,

alimente: miere, ……………..

Subliniati toate substantivele defective de plural si de singular din urmatoarea serie: caiet, baiat, inginer, miere, ceas, peste, aur carte inel, argint, bisturiu, sânge, rouă, lapte,masina, copac, adeverinta, elefant, curca, lene, curaj, istețime,frunzis, bloc-turn, zgârie-nori, viță-de-vie, câine-lup, bunătate, altruism, Ion, egoism, înțelepciune, Ministerul Apărării Naționale, fotbal, basket, tenis, handbal, atletism, watt, amper, înnot, snooker, celsius polo, atletism, fluture, girafă, biliard, patinaj, golf , zori, servieta, icre, linte, tăiței, ideal, șale ,vas, câlți , Carpați, Bucegi, referat, Alpi, pantaloni, ochelari.

Subliniază cu o linie substantivele defective de singular și cu două linii pe cele defective de plural: aur, sete, cibru, podoabă, zori, stea, minge, aplauze, unt, fotbal, vapor, șarpe, căpitan, șale, curaj, ochelari, câlți, miere.

Stabiliți substantivele defective de număr din următoarele enunțuri, arătați, apoi “defectul” fiecăruia în parte:

Când joacă forbal, nu poartă ochelari.

Am cumpărat un pachet de unt, deși aveam și margarină.

Fasolea este originară din America.

Pătrunjelul, mărarul și cimbrul sunt plante aromatice.

Ei se plângeau nu numai de foame, dar și de sete, pentru că , urcând pe Bucegi,

și-au uitat proviziile la cabană .

Nu mi-am procurat încă Analele de istorie pe anul 2006.

Funerariile încep la ora 14,00.

Folosind dictionarul, identificati substantive defective de singular si plural care sa faca parte din urmatoarele categorii: lichide, notiuni abstracte, materii, nume de sporturi.

Grupați următoarele substantive: înțelepciune, lapte, zori, aur, unt, tăieței, Bucegi, curaj, icre, dreptate pe două coloane: substantive defective de plural, substantive defective de singular.

Conclusions:

“To err is human”, so language learners make mistakes as well. No matter how perseverant or skillful a teacher is, mistakes occur all the time and they seem to represent an intrinsic part of the learning process.

An insight into errors – defined as “deviations from the norm” can help the teacher in clarifying some important aspects such as: identification of errors, types of errors, causes, importance of errors and measures to be taken (if any).

First of all, we have to start by expressing certitude: all learners make mistakes and this is not confined to language learners but “the majority of learners’ errors are linguistically quite different from those made by a native speaker”. At the same time, for a specialist it is equally true that “whilst the nature and quality of mistakes a learner makes provide no direct measure of his knowledge, it is probably the most important source of information about the nature of his knowledge. From the study of his errors we are able to infer the nature of his knowledge at that point in his learning career and discover what he has still to learn”.

Both native speakers and learners of a foreign language produce unacceptable and inappropriate utterance but, obviously, the proportion is different. Another difference is that native speakers are able to correct their own errors, but learners cannot always do this because an imperfect knowledge of the code. They have not yet internalized the formation rules of the second language.

Textbooks for advanced do not pay sufficient attention to this problem. No one can deny that nowadays textbooks are far more interesting than those before 1989 but unfortunately they have too few exercises to be used during the practice stage. As far as this specific topic is concerned, pupils themselves find it quite difficult because it seems to be very abstract and there are significant differences between English and our mother tongue. That is why the teacher has to try to use additional material during his/her classes in order to clarify ambiguities and to increase comprehension. All the above types of exercises contribute to this process but the students like error correction and translation exercises the most.

3.5 Lesson Project (English)

Grade: 5th (3rd year)

Level: advanced

Subject: Food Facts. Countable and uncountable words.

How much/how many? (Unit 10- WOW!)

Objectives:

to describe quantities;

to ask (using how much, how many) and answer about quantities;

to expand vocabulary in the context of food and eating.

Materials: pictures of food and drink from magazines

3.6 Lesson Project (Romanian)

Profesor:

Clasa : a VI-a

Data:

Aria curriculară: limbă și comunicare

Obiectul : limba română

Subiectul lecției : Substantivele defective

Scopul lecției: Cultivarea unei atitudini pozitive față de limba română și recunoașterea rolului acesteia pentru dezvoltarea personală și îmbogățirea orizontului cultural

Tipul lecției : asimilare de noi cunoștințe

Competențe generale: 2. Utilizarea corectă și adecvată a limbii române în producerea de mesaje orale în situații de comunicare monologată și dialogată;

3. Receptarea mesajului scris, din texte literare și nonliterare, în scopuri diverse

Competențe specifice: 2.3 utilizarea categoriilor gramaticale învățate, în diverse tipuri de propoziții

3.4 sesizarea organizării morfologice și sintactice a textelor citite (nonliterare și literare)

Obiective operaționale:O1 – definirea substantivului;

O2 – identificarea substantivelor defective dintr-un text;

O3 – diferențierea substantivelor defective de plural de cele defective de singlar

O4 – găsirea de adjective potrivite pentru anumite substantive defective;

O5 – integrarea substantivelor defective în enunțuri;

O6 – folosirea adecvată a substantivului defectiv.

Resurse educaționale ( materiale, procedurale, de timp ) :

Strategia didactică:

metode și procedee: conversația euristică și conversația catihetică, învățarea prin descoperire, explicația, exercițiul, brainstormingul, ciorchinele, „Știu – vreau să știu – am învățat”, termenii cheie

forme de organizare: frontală, individuală și în perechi

mijloace de învățământ: manualul, fișe

metode de evaluare: orală, observare sistematică, autoevaluare

Bibliografie :

Mazilu-Ionescu, Elena, Limba română, manual pentru clasa a VI-a, EDP, Bucuresti, 2007

Ioniță, Florin (coord.), Literatură. Limbă română. Comunicare, pentru clasa a VI-a, Grup Editorial Art, București, 2009

Păcurari, Otilia Ștefania(coord.), Predarea-învățarea interactivă centrată pe elev, Editura Educația 2000+, București, 2009

Șerban, Anca, Limba română – manual pentru clasa a VI-a, Editura All Educațional, București, 2000

SCENARIUL LECȚIEI

Final conclusions

The goals of language instruction include teaching students to use language accurately, meaningfully, and appropriately, so grammar is a necessity which cannot be ignored.

Among the grammatical points, the topic of countability and uncountability may be considered difficult as it covers a vast area. Despite the high degree of complexity, this issue can be integrated successfully in the educational process as long as the teacher takes into account wider developments in the field of language teaching and looks at language primarily as a means of communication and places the learner in the centre of all classroom processes.

In the past teachers tended to concentrate on how learners spoke and wrote instead of focusing on what they wanted to express. This is a result of a constant preoccupation with accuracy; that is why trainers used to correct any mistake. Nowadays our opinion is that learners need to experiment with language when trying to communicate, and this involves taking risks. Most linguists agree now that errors are not only inevitable but even a desirable part of the learning process. This view does not excuse errors but it does serve as a reminder that we should give credit to fluency, for successful communication, as well as for accuracy.

In the three chapters of my paper I have tried to make a theoretical overview of countablity and uncountability together with a synthesis of the basic principles of Communicative Language Teaching. At the same time I have presented some variants of sample lessons related to the chosen grammar issue. I have not totally ignored traditional approaches but my main purpose was to highlight how a grammar structure can be taught in relation with the communicative principles. All these elements are to be found both in the sample teaching activities and in the subsequent stages – practice and production.

According to CLT orientation, the presentation can be done in different ways. The teacher has to find authentic material or design material that contains all the necessary all the information necessary to stimulate short exchanges (between teacher and student/student and student) in which the target structure is used. This type of material is called “perceptual frame” and it contributes to the elicitation and practice of the language structure (for example a shopping list to introduce count and non-count nouns).

The students should be engaged in short responsive conversational exchanges in which they realistically focus on the meaning of what is said, but which also prompt them to use or hear the new structure. This has to be carefully planned if you want to target specific words and/or avoid others (e.g. only regular plurals, but not irregular ones). The elicited structures can be often supplemented by the use of realia (e.g. when presenting mass nouns).

The teacher can also use dialog presentations, using tapes on which native speakers’ voices are recorded. In this way the interaction between speakers is realistic; the target structure occurs naturally and represents the one that native speakers would use most frequently in that situation. Therefore the dialog is not a vehicle for the structure as it has the mark of authenticity. Of course, the task provides important details about the setting, the role and the relationship between speakers are indicated so the listeners know what they are exposed to.

This kind of listening activity is more and more available now as almost all the textbooks are accompanied by a cassette.

Secondly, the grammar structure should be highlighted. If it is embedded in a dialog, the teacher should exploit the dialog and have the students discover instances of the target structure. The next step for the instructor is to transfer relevant pieces of language on the blackboard so that the pupils could see them in isolation, then the teacher will underline them.

If perceptual frame or elicitation is used, the teacher is supposed to redo the presentation phase in "slow motion". This action allows the students to focus on the new structure and afterwards to infer the rule by themselves by working in pairs or groups. If it is necessary, the teacher may supply some "clues" meant to help students infer the rule and after that he/she explains the rule.

But we all know that theory without practice has almost no value. The first part of this process should be controlled as the focus is on form and accuracy. Taking into consideration this aspect, the teacher should provide exercises that limit the students' attention to the target structure so that it can be accurately produced; at this stage it is clear that the students’ answers should be predictable. CLT principles lead us to meaningful and realistic exercises, which do not simply imply a mechanical transformation where the students could get the correct form without considering the meaning of the whole sentence. Of course, this is not an easy thing to do: textbooks or grammar books also contain isolated, unconnected practice sentences. I consider that they can be useful, too but not in excess. Nowadays mechanical practice is somehow incorporated in the presentation phase. Examples of this kind of activity would be repetition drills and substitution drills.

At the same time, the teacher should again promote and encourage pair and group work wherever possible. Through completing activities in this way, learners will obtain several benefits: they can learn from hearing the language used by other members of the group; they will produce a greater amount of language than they would use in teacher-fronted activities; their motivational level is likely to increase; they will have the chance to develop fluency.

Bibliography

Avram, Mioara, Gramatica pentru toți, Bucuresti, Editura Humanitas, 1986.

Avram, Mioara, Studii de morfologie a limbii române, Bucuresti, Editura Academiei, 2005.

Carabulea, Elena, Despre substantivele defective de numar în limba româna, in LR, no. 6,

1986

Carabulea, Elena, Despre substantivele defective de numar în limba româna (1), in LR, no.

5, 1968

Carabulea, Elena, Despre substantivele defective de numar în limba româna (1), in LR, no. 5, 1968

Câmpeanu, Eugen, Substantivul: Studiu stilistic, Bucuresti, Editura Stiin_ifica si

Enciclopedica, 1983.

Chiriacescu, A., The Noun and Determiners, Bucuresti, Editura Teora, 2003

Constantin Paidos, English Grammar – Theory and Practice II , București: All Educational, 1999

Galațeanu-Fârnoaga, Georgiana, Comisel, Ecaterina, Gramatica limbii engleze, Editura

Lucman, Bucuresti, 1997

Georgiana Gãlãțeanu, Ecaterina Comișel, Gramatica limbii engleze, București: Editura didacticã și pedagogicã, 1982

Jeremy Harmer, Teaching and Learning Grammar, London , Longman, 1991

Leon Levițchi, Gramatica limbii engleze ,București: Teora, 1995

Mihai Mircea Zdrenghea, A Practical English Grammar, Ed. Clusium, Cluj-Napoca, 1997

Nica, Melente; Dumitru Mihailescu, Limba si Literatura romana, Editura Servo-Sat, Arad, 1996

Olivia Farrington, Dificultãți, capcane ale limbii engleze ,București, Teora, 1996

S. Pit Corder, Introducing Applied Linguistics,London, Penguin Books, 1977

Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Grammar, London , Longman, 2001

Vrajitoru, Ana, Interferen_e categoriale la substantivele românesti, Iasi, Editura Vasiliana,

1998.

Vrajitoru, Ana, Nominalitatea în limba româna, Iasi, Editura Vasiliana, 1998.

Online resources:

http://www.oupnlct.com

http://www.arlington.k12.va.us

Bibliography

Avram, Mioara, Gramatica pentru toți, Bucuresti, Editura Humanitas, 1986.

Avram, Mioara, Studii de morfologie a limbii române, Bucuresti, Editura Academiei, 2005.

Carabulea, Elena, Despre substantivele defective de numar în limba româna, in LR, no. 6,

1986

Carabulea, Elena, Despre substantivele defective de numar în limba româna (1), in LR, no.

5, 1968

Carabulea, Elena, Despre substantivele defective de numar în limba româna (1), in LR, no. 5, 1968

Câmpeanu, Eugen, Substantivul: Studiu stilistic, Bucuresti, Editura Stiin_ifica si

Enciclopedica, 1983.

Chiriacescu, A., The Noun and Determiners, Bucuresti, Editura Teora, 2003

Constantin Paidos, English Grammar – Theory and Practice II , București: All Educational, 1999

Galațeanu-Fârnoaga, Georgiana, Comisel, Ecaterina, Gramatica limbii engleze, Editura

Lucman, Bucuresti, 1997

Georgiana Gãlãțeanu, Ecaterina Comișel, Gramatica limbii engleze, București: Editura didacticã și pedagogicã, 1982

Jeremy Harmer, Teaching and Learning Grammar, London , Longman, 1991

Leon Levițchi, Gramatica limbii engleze ,București: Teora, 1995

Mihai Mircea Zdrenghea, A Practical English Grammar, Ed. Clusium, Cluj-Napoca, 1997

Nica, Melente; Dumitru Mihailescu, Limba si Literatura romana, Editura Servo-Sat, Arad, 1996

Olivia Farrington, Dificultãți, capcane ale limbii engleze ,București, Teora, 1996

S. Pit Corder, Introducing Applied Linguistics,London, Penguin Books, 1977

Scott Thornbury, How to Teach Grammar, London , Longman, 2001

Vrajitoru, Ana, Interferen_e categoriale la substantivele românesti, Iasi, Editura Vasiliana,

1998.

Vrajitoru, Ana, Nominalitatea în limba româna, Iasi, Editura Vasiliana, 1998.

Online resources:

http://www.oupnlct.com

http://www.arlington.k12.va.us