General considerations regarding The Noun

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

Throughout my pedagogical career so far I have noticed that pupils have difficulties when encountering countable and uncountable nouns, not as much when they recognize them as being included in a certain type but especially when they try to integrate such nouns into sentences of their own. This paper provides a theoretical basis for the topic as well as a practical one.

Of course, grammarians dedicate a quite vast area of their works to nouns so the theory comprised here does not bring novelty elements, although I have striven to make some comparisons and to illustrate their differences in opinion when there was the case. On the other hand, I have used my experience as a teacher of English to describe examples of activities that can be carried out in the class, at a primary and at a secondary school level mostly. Additionally, the bibliography I have consulted helped me find a more thorough insight into the communicative approach and into the relation between fluency and accuracy. It also offered a large variety of teaching methods that I have adapted for my topic. At the same time, I have tried to discover some causes of pupils errors and modalities of preventing or correcting errors.

Nowadays communication is the main goal for a learner who decides to take up studying a foreign language.

Few choose to make this endeavour only for literature s sake, to develop their capability of reading an author in the original or for other reasons, such as to broaden their experience or to expand their view of the world. A modern learner needs to have the ability to encode and decode information in a direct way as one faces a variety of communicative situations. In this context, the role of foreign language education has become extremely important and teachers should be able to instruct students in this respect.

This means that the language instructor should know and use the best methods and techniques in order to provide successful training.

It is obvious that at present the general focus is primarily on fluency rather than correctness, especially in every day conversation where little grammar is taken into consideration.

Nevertheless, grammar remains central to the teaching and learning of languages as the ideal combination would be both a good flux of communication and accuracy. Up to now, two major tendencies have influenced the practice of teaching foreign languages. The former leads to the view of treating grammar as a set of word forms and rules.

After explaining ...

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