(Sáng kiến kinh nghiệm) solutions for mastering upper secondary students’ performance in using the english articles

Teaching Experience Initiative
School-year: 2016-2017
“Solutions for Mastering Upper-secondary Students’ Performance in Using
the English Articles”

PART I: INTRODUCTION
I. Rationale for selecting the topic of the study:
An English sentence is obviously a grammatical unit that is constituted of a set
of various parts of speech. One of these sentence compositions can undoubtedly be the
English articles.
In fact, the English articles seem to be such simple words that they receive
relatively little attention. Despite their highly frequent appearance in both spoken and
written English, the acquisition of the complex article system remains one of the
biggest challenges for learners of English as a foreign language learners, especially
Vietnamese students. Sometimes, it is also difficult for teachers to teach the English
articles effectively.
At the Upper-secondary Level of Education in Vietnam, the English articles are
taught to students in Grades 10 and 12. However, this content is only a minor part of
the language focus lesson (Unit 13, English 10, and Unit 8, English 12) with a quite
monotonous form of practice (gap-filling). After the students have been taught the
articles in these two periods, there is no further educational process about English
articles. Students are then likely to reduce their attention to the use of articles no matter
if it is in their oral or written English, unless they come across a task testing their
ability to use articles in an English test. In addition, teachers will gradually pay little
attention to noticing whether students are using English articles in a correct way. Most
of the time, teachers will not correct the errors of using incorrect articles in their
students’ utterance or written work, because this kind of errors is not believed to result
in misunderstanding or to affect the meaning very much. All of these lead to a
consequence that students can still not fully acquire the use of the English articles even
if they are advanced or gifted students.
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 1


Teaching Experience Initiative
School-year: 2016-2017
As the teaching, learning and acquisition of the English articles have always
posed problems to the learners; hence, the topic “Solutions for Mastering Uppersecondary Students’ Performance in Using the English Articles” has been studied to
find out more suitable teaching techniques and approaches in teaching the articles so
that the teaching and learning process of the articles will be more effective.
II. Purposes of the study:
This study has been conducted with a strong desire that it can help raise
students’ awareness of the meaning and importance the correct use of the English
articles in everyday communications, in written English, as well as in their tests and
examinations. On that basis, they can have more opportunities to consolidate the
knowledge about the articles thoroughly through a detailed and logical system of
adequate theoretical contents and typical skills to solve problems related to this topic
for them to learn, use and apply in practice rapidly and productively. And then, as a
result, they will gradually be able to master their performance in using the articles.
Furthermore, with this experience initiative, I hope to contribute some of my personal
ideas on the use of the English article system to teaching experience sources for my
teacher colleagues to use as a reference in the English teaching process in general.
III. Objects of the study:
This teaching experience initiative specially focus on researching and analyzing
problems or difficulties that students encounter in using the English articles, and
finding out possible solutions to these problematic issues.
IV. Scope of the study:
The topic was studied in the English programme for the upper-secondary

students at Mai Anh Tuan High School in the school-year 2016-2017, and through
English tests, examinations of all kinds in the recent years.
V. Bases and of the study:
The experience initiative has been studied based on my own practical teaching
experiences, referring to documents related to the researched topic, including database
from the internet, observing other teachers’ lessons, and consulting my colleagues.
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 2


Teaching Experience Initiative
School-year: 2016-2017
PART II: DEVELOPMENT
To improve high school students’ performance in using the English articles, first
and foremost, it is necessary to investigate and analyze students’ difficulties related to
the use of this part of speech and their negative impacts. Afterward, the previously
analyzed problems will help find out possible solutions to better the situations.
A. Problems facing students in using the articles:
After the process of investigation and research through teaching my own classes,
observing my colleagues’ classes, studying references, consulting other teachers of
English about the researched topic, and results of various kinds of tests that my student
participants have done, it can be seen that learners of English as a foreign language are
faced with a wide range of difficulties in using the English articles. The problems may
be caused by the first language interference or the intra-lingual factors of English.
These factors, whether internal or external, make the task of mastery difficult for
learners of English to achieve, and can have a negative effect on their proficiency.
Among problems facing students, there are the following emergent tendencies:

I. Article omission (lack of an article or no article):
Needless to say, English and Vietnamese are the two languages with so many
significant differences. However, when learning English, Vietnamese students
naturally tend to have a habit of using their mother tongue in the thinking process
instead of the language that is being studied. It is this habit that can put their
production of the new language to a lot of trouble. Moreover, among the parts of
speech forming English sentences, the articles are only little words, hence, it is not
very surprising when problems as follow appear when students try to transform
Vietnamese word by word to English.
Because of language thinking in the mother tongue, Vietnamese students tend to
transform their own language word by word to English when they want to use English
to express and convey their ideas. The transformation is simply performed based on
expressions and sentence structures of the Vietnamese language, without appearance of
the English articles. Moreover, Vietnamese has no exact parallels of articles to English,
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 3


Teaching Experience Initiative
School-year: 2016-2017
so learners nearly have no notion or a vague notion of this part of speech. How can
they use the English articles in communications when they do not know the existence
of these words? For example, such sentences as the following are quite frequently
spoken or written by Vietnamese students:
a. In future, I want to become doctor.-Trong tương lai, tôi muốn trở thành bác sĩ.
b. My friend has given interesting book to me.-Bạn của tôi đã tặng cuốn sách cho tôi.
In the example a, in front of “future” and “doctor” should be the articles “the” and “a”,

and in b, “an” should stand right before “interesting book”. The majority of people
may not get trouble understanding the meaning of these sentences, however, to ones
with a little knowledge of English, the utterances seem unusual, and less natural.
Moreover, generalizing rules of article use from examples students have learnt
somewhere can also lead to article deletion. For instance, after listening or reading
such sentences produced by native speakers or writers as “We had a wonderful
holiday in Italy, a country in southern Europe.” or “China has so many famous
historical places.” or “France was the host nation of the 1998 World Cup.”, learners
recognize that there are no articles before the name of countries, which may become a
rule for them to apply. As a result, they can leave out the articles in their sentences:
a. Some of my friends are living and studying in USA.
b. Philippines is a country consisting of a group of islands in South East Asia.
In the examples previously mentioned, “the” should come before “USA” and
“Philippines” simply because these are exceptions of the rule formed by students.
In addition, lack of knowledge about features of nouns or noun phrases (whether
they are definite or indefinite, countable or uncountable, singular or plural…) may also
lead to the tendency of omitting the articles, for example:
a. Thank you for your dinner. Soup was really delicious.
b. Television is effective means of communication.
In a, students may easily realize the noun “soup” is uncountable, but it is also definite,
so “The” should come before it. In b, “means” is indefinite singular noun, however, its
plural form is the same, so the article an is left out.
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 4


Teaching Experience Initiative

School-year: 2016-2017
II. Article overuse (Unnecessary insertion of articles):
Vietnamese students in an attempt to transform Vietnamese word by word to the
second language not only leave out the articles, but also use this part of speech where it
is not needed. The overuse is often caused by students’ limitations in recognizing
whether the nouns or noun phrases that the articles precede are countable or
uncountable, definite or indefinite, for instance:
a. That’s a great news. - Đó là một tin tuyệt vời.
b. This the house is going to be demolished. -Ngôi nhà này sắp sửa bị phá hủy.
In the previous examples, the articles “a” and “the” should not be there. The reason for
this overuse is student’s understanding that “một” in Vietnamese is corresponding to
“a/an” in English, in addition, in Vietnamese, “tin - news” is a countable noun, and
“Ngôi nhà này” is a specific noun which is thought to need a definite English articles.
Another reason for article overuse may be inflexible overgeneralization of an
article using rule and lack of flexibility in applying a set of rules to a certain situation.
For example, on the basis of a rule that the article “the” precedes a noun or noun
phrase referring something unique, students probably write or say something like that:
a. The Vietnam is my sweet home country.
b. Nothing on the earth can persuade me to believe you.
In the first situation, students tend to think that there is only one Vietnam in the world.
Also, in the second one, there is only one earth in existence. Therefore, they misuse the
article “the” in both cases, without noticing that proper names of such countries as
Vietnam need no articles and “on earth” is an idiom used after negative nouns or
pronouns to emphasize what is being said.
One more reason for article overuse can be that students have no thorough
understanding of important features of nouns or noun phrases which decide whether
the articles are used or not, for instance:
a. The doctors are people who treat the sick or injured.
b. A love can cause a lot of suffering.
In a, the noun “doctor” refers to all doctors in general, not specific ones, so “The”

Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 5


Teaching Experience Initiative
School-year: 2016-2017
should not be there. In b, “love” expresses a general idea and it an uncountable noun,
therefore, “A” should be omitted.
III. Confusion about the articles:
One of the most problematic issues in using the English articles would
undoubtedly be making wrong choices of articles. The significant causes of this
incorrect selection may be the following:
1. Confusion between the and a/an:
The English articles are dependent words on nouns or noun phrases they
precede, hence that students confuse the with a/an is eventually the problem of
distinguishing definite and indefinite nouns/ noun phrases, or specific and general
ideas. This confusion would lead to using the instead of a/an where needed or vice
versa. The examples below can clearly show students’ uncertainty about the use of the
English articles.
a. My cousin’s garden looks so nice. I wish to have such the garden.
b. Would your son like a present we have bought for him?
c. To attend this formal party, you need the elegant dress.
d. I was very impressed with an omelet you made for me.
In the first example, the noun “garden” appears twice, so the second “garden” seems
to be believed to be a definite noun while it, in fact, is indefinite. In b, “present” is
specific because both the speaker and the listener already know it, however, it is only
used once, which makes students think they have an indefinite noun here. Also, in c

and d, students misunderstand definiteness and indefiniteness of the noun and noun
phrase, which results in their wrong choice of articles.
2. Confusion between a and an:
Nouns or noun phrases coming after the indefinite articles a and an have a
number of features in common. The basic difference between using a and an is that a
is used in front of a noun or noun phrase starting with a consonant and an stands before
a noun or noun phrases starting with a vowel. Vietnamese learners are likely to think
that sounds and their letters are the same. It is this tendency that causes students’
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 6


Teaching Experience Initiative
confusion between a and an or vice versa, for instance:

School-year: 2016-2017

a. A honest man always tells the truth.
b. Linh has applied to an university in Hanoi.
In the previous cases, “h” in “honest” is a silent sound, so the noun phrase begins with
the vowel /ɒ/, “u” in the noun “uniform” is pronounced /ju:/. Hence, the noun phrase
“honest man” is preceded by an rather than a, and the noun “uniform” is preceded by a
instead of an.
Generally, the majority of students’ problems in using the English articles are
resulted from their inappropriate learning process, lack of knowledge or understanding
of the English article system, including fundamental concepts and rules, and incorrect
application of a rule or a set of rules in using these articles.

B. Suggested problem solutions:
Students’ mastery of using English, in general, can actually be seen as a big
achievement resulted from the effective combination of multiple factors. To have a
multiple-part product of language with a high quality, each of constituents must be
standardized, qualitative, and specially free of all the problems, even minor errors in
using such little words as the English articles. Hence, problem-solving would really
become urgent and important to have opportune solutions to the problematic issues
involved. Below are some suggested ones:
I. Theory:
I. A. To teachers:
Teachers are believed to play a very important role in the teaching-learning
process. Therefore, it is necessary for teachers to find out possible solutions to achieve
expected results.
Firstly, before class, teachers should inform students of the topic of the next
lesson to draw students’ attention to the contents they are going to learn. Also, teachers
themselves need to make careful preparations for the lesson they are going to give.
Secondly, in class, teachers should present the lesson contents logically,
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 7


Teaching Experience Initiative
School-year: 2016-2017
scientifically, and briefly with clear explanations and positive teaching approaches
such as Teaching the articles based on contexts, Teaching the articles based on real
life situations, Teaching the articles using realia, Teaching the articles using pictures,
and Encouraging students to do speaking and writing practice regularly, …

Next, teachers must suggest, guide, encourage and join students in completing as
an comprehensive and adequate overview of the English articles and their rules of use
as possible. The collective achievement gained would probably be a useful reference
document for all of them in the process of learning and using the English articles.
Overview of the English articles
1. Definition of the English Articles:
In English, an article is a grammatical element used to indicate definiteness or
indefiniteness of a noun or noun phrase that it precedes [1].
There are two types of the English Articles: the two indefinite articles (a and
an), and the definite article (the).
2. Nouns/ Noun phrases preceded by the articles:
It is necessary for students to understand the features of nouns or noun phrases
because whether an article or no article is used before a noun or noun phrase mainly
depends on the nature of this noun or noun phrase.
2.1. Definite and indefinite nouns/ noun phrases:
- A definite noun/ noun phrase is a noun/ noun phrase referring to:
+ a particular member of a group or class, the uniquely specified thing or the things
that have already been mentioned.
Ex: She is the nicest girl in my village./The moon moves round the sun.
I have bought a new motorbike. The motorbike was made in Vietnam.
+ the person/thing or people/things that both the speaker or writer and the listener or
reader have already known.
Ex: The computer you gave me still works well.
- An indefinite noun/ noun phrase is a noun/ noun phrase referring to:
+ a person/thing, or people/things that can be any one of several different people/things
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 8

Teaching Experience Initiative
or groups of people/things.

School-year: 2016-2017

Ex: I’ll bring a book to read in case I have to wait for the train for a long time.
+ a person/thing or people/things that only the speaker or writer knows.
Ex: Yesterday, I saw a terrible accident.
2.2. Countable and uncountable nouns/ noun phrases:
- A countable noun/ noun phrase is a noun/ noun phrase that can be counted and used
with a number. It can be singular or plural.
Ex: computer, computers, teacher, teachers,…
- An uncountable noun/ noun phrase is a noun/ noun phrase that cannot be counted and
used with a number. It has no plural form.
Ex: money, sugar, rice,…
2.3. Singular and plural nouns/ noun phrases:
- A singular noun/ noun phrase is a countable noun/ noun phrase that refers to
one person or thing.
Ex: child, book, well-behaved boy, funny story,…
- A plural noun/ noun phrase is a countable noun/ noun phrase that refers to
more than one person or thing. A plural noun/ noun phrase is generally formed by
adding “s/es” after its singular form. Some have irregular forms.
Ex: two children, three books, well-behaved boys, funny stories,…
2.4. Specific and general nouns/ noun phrases:
Nouns/ noun phrases of any kind (countable, uncountable, singular or plural) can
be specific or general [3].
- A specific noun/ noun phrase is a noun/ noun phrase that is used to talk about some
thing or things in particular.

Ex: My dad's company made a profit this year.
(profit = countable, singular, and specific) [3].
- A general noun/ noun phrase is a noun/ noun phrase that is used to make a
generalization about some thing or things [3].
Ex: Money is necessary to live. (money = uncountable, and general) [3]
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 9


Teaching Experience Initiative
3. Table of basic rules:

School-year: 2016-2017
Students’

Article

Rules

Purposes

Addition

s
- used before

- to refer to an unspecified member of a

singular countable

group/ class.

indefinite
nouns/noun phrases.

there’s nothing good on. [6]

+ a: with nouns/

- to mention something for the first time.

noun phrases
a/an

I’d like to go to a concert tonight, but

I’ve had a great idea! [6]

beginning with

- to talk about things generally. (formal

consonant sounds.

English)

+ an: with vowel

A poet sees things differently.

sounds.

(= Poets see….)[6]

Note: it is the sound

- to show what group someone/

not the spelling that

something belongs to, or to classify it/

is important (ex: a

her/him.

unique experience,

Liz is a modernist. [6]

an umbrella…).
- to refer to a specified member of a
- used before

group/ class, someone/something already

singular countable

known or mentioned.

definite nouns/noun
phrases.

Is that the band you were talking
about? [6]
- to talk about things generally. (formal
English)

The

The guitar is one of the oldest musical
instruments.
(= Guitars are….)[6]

Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 10


Teaching Experience Initiative

School-year: 2016-2017
- to refer to specific people/things, or

- used before plural

people/things already known or

countable definite

mentioned.

nouns/noun phrases.

The scales are balanced to symbolize
equality. [6]

- used before

- to refer to something specific, or

uncountable definite

something already known or mentioned.

nouns/noun phrases.

Who did the publicity for the show? [6]

- used before some

- to talk about things generally. (formal

adjectives to mean

English)

groups of people.

Pop music has always appealed more
to the young more than the old.[6]

Note:
- used with physical things that are unique (the moon/ sun/ …).
- used with the superlatives (the best/ the most interesting…)
and cardinal numbers (the first/ second…).
- used to mean the well-known or the famous.
I bumped into Damian Hirst, the artist, in the supermarket.
(= the well=known artist) [6]
- used before plural
- to talk about things generally.
countable indefinite
nouns/noun phrases.
No

- used before

Article

uncountable

Don’t let your young child use scissors
unsupervised. [6]
An artist always needs inspiration. [6]

indefinite nouns/
noun phrases.
Note: often used for concepts (not physical thing): society,
space, nature…
4. Table of the articles in particular phrases and expressions:
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 11


Teaching Experience Initiative
Indefinite

Definite article

School-year: 2016-2017
No article
Students’

articles
in an hour, in a in the 1990s, in the In 2000, in winter
second [6], in

winter, in the

[6], in January,

a minute

morning/

on Friday, at

Time

Addition

afternoon/ evening/ noon, at night, at
night, on the first/

dawn

second/…of the 8th
have a job,

month [6]
the King, the

Americans/

work as a

Principle, the

Russians, become

teacher, I met

President, the

President/

People, work

a very nice

British [6], do the

Chairman, go to

and activities

American last

washing-up/

work, be at work,

night [6], take/

cleaning-up

have work to do

have a rest, do

[6], go shopping,

me a favour

have/eat
breakfast/lunch/

Is there a

the Himalayas, the

dinner
Mount Everest,

beach near

Pacific Ocean, the

Berlin, America,

here? [6]

Sein, the earth, the

Antarctica,

Antarctic, the

Jupiter, Fleet

USA, the UK, the

Street, Wall

Scilly Isles [6]

Street, Lake

Places

Michigan,
Mykonos [6]

Public
Le Thi Lan Anh

Is there a bank

the bank, the post

go to school/

near here? [6]

office, go to the

hospital/ prison

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 12

Teaching Experience Initiative
buildings

school/ hospital/

School-year: 2016-2017
(as a student/

prison (as a visitor) patient/ prisoner)
[6], the university

[6], Cambridge

Play us a

of Cambridge...
play the guitar, the

university...
play football,

song!, I have

media, on the

listen to music,

radio, go to the

on TV, watch TV

ball [6]

cinema [6], the

[6]

Does

World Cup, …
the BBC, the

NATO [6],

Switzerland

police, the

NATS, FIFA, …

Entertainmen got a tennis
t and sports

Organizations have an army?

Education

Travel

Health

emergency

[6]

services, the UN

have a lesson,

[6]
be in the

Maths, Music, be

take an exam,

first/second/…

in class/ grade/

do a test, [6].
take a taxi,

year [6]
in the car/ taxi, on

year/ form 10 [6].
on foot, go/ get/

catch a bus/

the bus/ plane

reach/ come

train [6].

home, go by bus/

have a cold/

have the flu/

car/ train [6]
have flu/ measles/

cough/

measles [6]

toothache/

headache/

stomachache [6],

stomachache/

mumps/ shingles/

toothache [6],

blood pressure/

sore throat/
gout/ hepatitis
What is more, teachers should always pay special attention to observing,
interacting with students to find out students’ problems or difficulties or obstacles in
their learning process as early as possible. Sometimes, too much trouble can
discourage students, even teachers. However, teachers should have a positive attitude
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 13


Teaching Experience Initiative
School-year: 2016-2017
towards these obstacles to offer timely and effective solutions to help students
overcome their difficulties.
I.B. To students:
Nowadays, in student-centered education, students are a key factor that helps
produce expected achievements. To the perception of any unit of knowledge in general
and learning how to use the English articles correctly and effectively in particular,
students must always try to keep their decisive role.
Firstly, students should prepare for the lesson before going to class by finding
information and documents involved with the topic of the lesson.
Secondly, students should be active and positive in perceiving definitions or

concepts as well as other theoretical points related to the English articles which are
presented in class.
Thirdly, students need to make every effort to understand, memorize and
consolidate theoretical points, specially rules of use and exceptions, to be able to
master their using the English articles.
Fourthly, in class, also after class, students should frankly share their problems
with teachers and ask for help if necessary. Getting well-timed assistance and useful
tips of advice in need will promote students’ spirit in learning English.
Last but not least, students must raise their awareness of self-investigating, selfteaching and collecting more useful details related to the topic to contribute to creating
as an adequate and comprehensive source of shared reference documents as possible.
II. Practice:
It is said that Practice makes perfect. The acquisition of the theory is undeniably
important, however, practice is really a key to the mastery of students’ performance in
using the articles.
To encourage students to do regular practice with much enthusiasm, beside some
gap-filling tasks in the textbooks, a system of supplementary exercises in various forms
has been designed for students’ further practice in class as well as after class. Below
are typical forms of tasks (See APPENDICES-I. Supplemental Exercises and Answers):
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 14


Teaching Experience Initiative
School-year: 2016-2017
EX1. Fill in each blank in the following sentences with a/ an/ the/ no article(Ø).
EX2. Complete the short story below with a/ an/ the/ no article(Ø).
EX3. Complete the following interview with a/ an/ the/ no article(Ø).

EX4. Complete the following paragraph with a/ an/ the/ no article(Ø).
EX5. Choose the correct option.
EX6. Decide which word or words are correct.
EX7. Choose the best option to complete each blank in the following sentences.
EX8. Underline the extra word in each sentence.
EX9. Read the story. There is a word missing in some lines. Write a(n) or the where
necessary. Write “OK” if the line is already complete.
EX10. Find out a mistake in each of the following sentences and correct it.
EX11. Choose the letter of the underlined word or group of words that is not correct.
EX12. What do you say in these situations?
EX13. Complete each of the dialogues and role-play to practise it.
EX14. Interview your partner about one of the following topics.
EX15. Make a dialogue or conversation about one of the following topics.
EX16. Talk about one of the following topics.
EX17. Say something to describe the following pictures.
EX18. Build up sentences, using the prompts given.
EX19. Rewrite each of the following sentences, using the word(s) given.
EX20. Write sentences to describe the pictures given.
EX21. Translate the following sentences into English.
EX22. Match each word with the right explanation and write sentences with a/an.
EX23. Replace the sentences containing an underlined word. Use a/an or the with
the word in brackets.
EX24. Create a story based on the group of words or phrases given.
EX25. Write a paragraph or an essay on a certain topic.
In the teaching process, to warm up the learning atmosphere and to avoid the
students feeling that lessons are too difficult and complicated, types of the previously
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 15


Teaching Experience Initiative
School-year: 2016-2017
mentioned exercises are designed in the form of games such as Lucky Numbers, Who
will be the Millionaire?, Role-plays, Picture-description, articles-pelmanism-game,
articles-once-upon-a-time-game,…. Thus, the students seem to learn the lessons at
their ease, and acquire knowledge better.
PART III: CONCLUSION
I. Study results:
In my English teaching process, I have gradually provided my students a system
of knowledge of the English articles and useful suggestions for practice that step by
step help them get familiar with and consolidate their theoretical knowledge as well as
improve their practical skills. Various goals have been set for different students based
on their own levels of English. After applying the previously mentioned solutions to
English teaching for some time, it is quite encouraging that most of the students have
had a more thorough grasp of basic knowledge and certain skills to solve problems
related to the articles. However, it is quite difficult for weak students to understand and
to apply these skills in practice because to practise well with these skills, the students
must have a wide range of knowledge covering various contents in English. Thus,
through my lessons, I constantly help the students revise and consolidate the
knowledge that they have learnt and improve their practical skills.
Below are some achieved results of the study after being applied to English
teaching and revision in classes 10G and 10M at Mai Anh Tuan High School in the
school-year 2016-2017. These statistics are based on the 10 question tests (See
APPENDICES, II. Tests and suggested answers) on using the English articles at
different levels of difficulty at different points in time during this school-year.
1. The results the 1st test (before applying the initiative):
Class

No.
of sts

Le Thi Lan Anh

No. of students with correct answers
0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Mai Anh Tuan High School

7

8

9

10

Page 16


Teaching Experience Initiative
10G
42
1
3
5
10M

Class

42

2

4

6

8

9

6

School-year: 2016-2017
5
3

2
0
0

9

9

5

4

No. of Incorrect

2

1

0

0

Problems

Answers (%)

Omission

Overuse

Confusion

10G

250 / 420

75

50

125

10M

59.52 %
270 / 420

17.86 %
80

11.90 %
60

29.76 %
130

64.29 %

19.04 %

14.29 %

30.95 %

2. The results the 2nd test (after applying the initiative for a semester)
Class

No.

No. of students with correct answers

of sts

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

10G

42

0

2

3

7

7

7

8

3

3

1

1

10M

42

1

3

4

7

7

7

7

3

2

1

0

Class

No. of Incorrect

Problems

Answers (%)

Omission

Overuse

Confusion

10G

213 / 420

64

40

109

10M

50.71 %
237 / 420

15.24 %
71

9.52 %

47

25.95 %
119

56.43 %

16.91 %

11.19 %

28.33 %

3. The results the 3rd test (after applying the initiative for a semester and a half)
Class
10G

No.

No. of students with correct answers

of sts

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

42

0

0

1

3

5

10

9

5

5

2

2

Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 17


Teaching Experience Initiative
10M
42
0
0
2

Class

4

6

11

No. of Incorrect

School-year: 2016-2017
10
5
2
1
1

Problems

Answers (%)

Omission

Overuse

Confusion

10G

172 / 420

52

34

86

10M

40.95 %
185 / 420

12.38 %
55

8.09 %
37

20.48 %
93

44.05 %

13.10 %

8.81 %

22.14 %

4. The results the 4th test (after applying the initiative for the whole school-year)
Class

No.

No. of students with correct answers

of sts

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

10G

42

0

0

0

0

2

7

8

7

7

6

5

10M

42

0

0

0

0

3

9

10

7

6

4

3

Class

No. of Incorrect

Problems

Answers (%)

Omission

Overuse

Confusion

10G

120 / 420

36

24

60

10M

28.57 %
140 / 420

8.57 %
42

5.71 %
28

14.29 %
70

33.33 %

10 %

6.66 %

16.67 %

The tables show that the number of students who have had more correct answers
to the questions related to the English articles has been gradually increasing through
time and the number of students who have had a few correct answers has been
declining. The problems facing students that have negative effects on students’ mastery
fall into three main categories: omission, overuse and confusion. Among these
problems, article confusion is the most problematic, making up to nearly 50% of the
total number of problems, omission around 30%, and overuse about 20%. The table
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 18


Teaching Experience Initiative
School-year: 2016-2017
also indicates that the rate of each type of problems has steadily increased. Although
the initial results seem not to be very impressive, I would like to share this teaching
experience initiative in the hope that it could help contribute a little to improving the
quality of teaching English at the upper secondary education. Moreover, I do wish that
the study would be of some value to both teachers and students in their English
teaching and learning process.
II. Suggestions:
Obviously, the study still has certain limitations. Thus, it would be my pleasure
to get as many pieces of contributive advice or suggestions as possible to better and
help my teaching initiative become more productive in the English teaching and
learning process at high schools in the future.
I would like to express my heartfelt thanks for all the constructive ideas!
Thanh Hoa, June 8th, 2017.

The author

Le Thi Lan Anh

REFERENCES
[1]. Wikipedia (EN)
[2]. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary
[3]. www.ntid.rit.edu
[4]. Destination B1, Malcolm Mann - Steve Taylore-Knowles
[5]. Destination B2, Malcolm Mann - Steve Taylore-Knowles
[6]. Destination C1-C2, Malcolm Mann - Steve Taylore-Knowles
Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 19


Teaching Experience Initiative
[7]. www.Teach-This.com

School-year: 2016-2017

[8]. www.britishcouncil.org/learnerEnglishkids
[9]. Essential Grammar in Use Supplementary Exercises, Helen Naylor with
Raymond Murphy, Cambridge University Press.
[10]. English Grammar in Use, Raymond Murphy.
[11]. An Intensive Preparation Course fot the TOEFL.ITP, NEU.
[12]. Ôn tập và kiểm tra Tiếng Anh 10, Nguyễn Quốc Tuấn – Lê Văn Canh – Lương
Quỳnh Trang, Nhà xuất bản Giáo Dục.

[13]. Tiếng Anh 10, Nhà xuất bản Giáo Dục.
[14]. Tiếng Anh 11, Nhà xuất bản Giáo Dục.
[15]. Tiếng Anh 12, Nhà xuất bản Giáo Dục.
[16]. The internet.
[17]. Advanced Grammar in use, Martin Hewings.
[18]. Oxford Practice Grammar, John Eastwood, Oxford University Press.

Le Thi Lan Anh

Mai Anh Tuan High School

Page 20