Tatyana, Russia
I think the main problem of beginners is the use of a/the with single countables. The explanation: "when you mention something for the first/second time" usually makes the matters worse. When a pupil has to translate into English a sentence like "the book is on the table", both "the book" and "the table" seem to be mentioned for the first time, the more so, the bulk of exercises are composed of isolated sentences. To my mind, for a start it's enough to say that "a" corresponds to "any" or "one". "The" originates from this/that; so in case of a difficulty one can try to substitute the article with one of these words.Usually it works.
/Modifiers of place,like "on the table" usually go with the def. article./

Devinder Raj, Malaysia
In spite of teaching the rules on how to use the articles students still make mistakes and so what I do is that I take a reading comprehension passage from the students text book which the students have worked with. I make a copy of it and delete all the articles and ask the students to fill in the gaps. This way the students are looking at a passage they are familiar with and so can better understand how the articles are used.

Dan Danforth, Canada
I ask the students to bring me a table from the next room. No problem - any table will do. Then I ask them to bring the table from the next room. This usually elicits "which one, or what kind of table?" (a table could be a chart of numbers) When articles move from the indefinite (a) to the definite (the) the line of specificity moves from any to a particular one. Usually, we drop the the from some words school, prison because they are already specific and defined places. If I say that I am going to a New York, that would mean that there are several to choose from. If I say I am going to the New York, the the is redundant, as there is only one possible New York. I don't know if this helps, but it works for me.

Peter Romain, UK
I am nearly at the end of a TESOL Trinity course in the UK, and whilst I (think) I know English and have been teaching it for several years, I had to "do" an articles lesson. Not a good experience - Pawel's (from Poland) final comments made me smile; one of the first since I started the course. Much of our language is not enjoyable, except by those smart academics who spend years studying the minutea of our language.Keeping a sense of humour in the lessons is a must, but unfortunately for us, a lot of our students have to pass an examination at some point.

Leigh, New Zealand
Having taught in Poland, I understand the frustrations student have with those pesky English articles.I have approached it this way for higher levels.First I give the student the different rules of definite, indefinite and zero articles. Students then match up the rules with example sentences (carefully prepared by the teacher). Or swap the procedure about. Give the sentences, groups try and come up with the rules of the articles. Then give the groups the rules to match to the sentcens and compare withtheir created rules. From here there is more guided practice with sentences with no articles. Students must put in articles where they think necessary and discuss why they have chosen this article. A freer practice exercise which only works with monolingual classes is short translation. Each group is given a short paragraph in English (could be some paragraphs from previous readings or made by the teacher to included certain sentences containing the rules previously give). Each group translates the paragraph into L1. The translated paragraph is then given to another group to translate back into English. Once it has been retranslated the group get the original English paragragh and checks to see the difference in article use ONLY. Choices of vocabulary and tenses are something that will come up but not the focus of the activity. This exercise needs to be kept short as it is not an exercise in translation.

Ayman Khodairy, Egypt
My way is very simple. I teach articles through examples. I give my students handouts containing my carefully-tailored examples that move gradually from the simplest to the the most complicated rules. After grasping the rule through these contrasting examples, they have the chance to practice it directly and one by one saying whether a certain use of the articles is right or wrong. It is usually wrong and they have to correct it. Finally I state the rules plainly or ask them to conclude them from the examples they have tackled.

Pawel Tabaszewski, Poland
Articles are the area of the English language to which the proverb “the more you know the less you know” refers the best. If we say “I have lunch at school” why do we say “I had a big breakfast”? If “I drank too much coffee” is correct, why should we accept “Can I have a coffee?”? etc., etc. Undoubtedly, the teachers of English know the answers. They know the rules. Nonetheless, as far as articles are concerned, every rule can be turned down; even the basic ones. Take this one: .What about “the cat is pink!” – can’t you say that even if you see the poor painted creature for the first time? The conclusion is: articles are not enjoyable. Don’t try to spend hours teaching them! Use your common sense and your sense of humour as well. Give examples that will make the students smile. If you happen to find articles most important, you should go to _ prison. Then your students may pay you a visit in THE prison.There you'll find enough time to envy Spaniards their uno/una, Gremans their ein/eine etc.

Ryan, Poland
I tackled it. It is quite simple. I gave them my handout of the top, common, easy to explain rules for articles: a/an is used for singular, countable nouns. "The" can be used with countable nouns in the plural form as well (i.e. the boy; the boys). Also, common problems with articles: don't use in front of meals (dinner, lunch, etc.); same with a/an (except for celebrations). Also, "the" comes before Newspaper titles, usually. I can get you the full handout if you like. I went through all of the common mistakes and easy to learn rules of articles and then we played a game. I hammered away at them for 2 weeks on this. They have definatley improved: it is great. The problem area to teach is that "a" appears before a consonant and "an" before a mute "h." Don't try and teach that so much. That is truly why articles are a "feeling" for natives, something our students just don't have. Practice.

Zhanna, Russia
First, you have to make it clear that normally only common nouns have articles (you can concentrate on nouns with proper names and on articles with collective adjectives, like 'the poor' later, because it might be confusing for beginners). I sometimes say that in front of every noun or noun group (an adjective plus a noun) there is a place for a determiner: an article, or a possessive, or words like 'this' and 'that'. So if you want to say 'my blue jacket' or 'Anne's blue jacket' or 'this blue jacket', the place for the determiner is already taken, and you don't need an article.

The next basic point is which nouns can have 'a': only countable common nouns in the singular. So for such nouns the choice is either 'a'/'an' or 'the', and for all other nouns the choice is either no article or 'the'.

Now comes the most difficult part: the actual rules of using the articles. It's hard to explain these rules to people who have no such thing in their own languauge and consequently feel no need for it in English. I normally give the following rules: use 'a'/'an' or no article when you mention something for the first time, when you speak about the thing generally, like in 'I like computers' - 'computers' meaning 'all computers in the world, doesn't matter which computers exactly', or when you want to say 'I like computers, not hockey'. Use 'the' when speaking about the thing you've mentioned or when you can say 'that very' instead of the article: I like (that very) book you gave me - I like the book you gave me.

But of course that's not all , it's only a tiny part. Some expressions need to be learned as chunks - like, 'in the morning, afternoon, evening - at night'; most phrases of location and direction - 'on the floor, on the wall, by the door' , etc. It takes time and practice. I sometimes think that only practicing the language - extensive reading and listening - can give the student that 'feeling' of the language that will enable them to use articles correctly.