English Articles — Are You Using Them Correctly? (Continued)

<h2>English Articles: Are You Using Them Correctly? (Part 2)</h2><p>Teacher Rowena</p><p>With 25 years of experience in teaching English, I have witnessed students suffer from varying degrees of fear and difficulty in learning the language. To improve students' interest and quality of learning, I have published books and developed the 'Double R Amalgamation Method' (details at www.doubleramalgam.com), a system tailored for Chinese speakers to learn English more effectively and systematically.</p><p>Last time, I mentioned a simple test that revealed that many people in Hong Kong, including educators, have never correctly mastered the technique of using the articles 'a' and 'an'. I would like to thank the Education Media; since the report was published, 80 people have completed the test to gauge their English proficiency. Unfortunately, the average score dropped from 65/100 to 55/100. The results indicate that most people mistakenly believe the usage of 'a' and 'an' is determined by the first letter of the English noun (a, e, i, o, u), though in reality, it is not.</p><p>Most people know that among the 26 letters of the alphabet, a, e, i, o, and u are called vowels, but many do not know the true purpose of a, e, i, o, and u or their relationship with the other 21 letters. Please see the attached image.</p><p>In fact, only a, e, i, o, and u can be pronounced independently. Other letters, such as 'b', are read as 'b' because a vowel 'i' is added to the back, while 'f' has a vowel 'e' added to the front, and so on. Therefore, the correct usage of the articles 'a' and 'an' is based on whether the first syllable of the noun is pronounced with the vowel sounds a, e, i, o, or u, not on the first letter of the noun. In the test I designed, most of the errors made by participants were due to choosing based solely on the first letter of the noun.</p><p>I am not surprised by these disappointing results because, while English is a second language for many learners in Hong Kong, most textbooks used by teachers are written for native English speakers, whose method of using the language differs from ours. When native speakers read and write English, they use it in groups of words rather than combining words one by one, making the use of articles 'a' and 'an' as natural and fluent as the Cantonese particles 'la' or 'ne'. Furthermore, as beginners have limited reception, many English teachers in Hong Kong, in order to help students complete exercises or cope with exams as quickly as possible, teach them the simplest rule—using 'a, e, i, o, u' as the primary criteria—as a temporary measure.</p><p>Occasionally, some teachers point out special cases, such as 'an hour' or 'a university', but very few explain the correct usage thoroughly and clearly. This leads to many people making mistakes when using articles today. This 'temporary measure' has become a 'permanent habit.' Today's students will become teachers of others in the future, allowing this expedient teaching method to be passed down from generation to generation.</p><p>The famous British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking once said, 'The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.' I strongly agree with this statement, because the biggest obstacle to learning English is partial knowledge.</p><p>If you have time, readers, why not test your friends and family to see if they also possess only partial knowledge of English?</p><h3>Alphabet Pronunciation</h3><p>A [ei] B [bi:] C [si:] D [di:] E [i:]</p><p>F [ef] G [dʒi:] H [eitʃ] I [ai] J [dʒei]</p><p>K [kei] L [el] M [em] N [en] O [əʊ]</p><p>P [pi:] Q [kju:] R [a:] S [es] T [ti:]</p><p>U [ju:] V [vi:] W ['dʌblju:]</p><p>X [eks] Y [wai] Z [zed/zi:]</p><p>For readers interested in the test, feel free to scan the QR code in the top right corner to challenge yourself.</p><p>All rights reserved by Goodschool Magazine</p>