My preschool-aged nephew got a pop-up play tent for Christmas in the shape of a VW camper van. We play in the camper every time I’m visiting, and I think every primary classroom should have one!

My nephew’s favorite game is shopping at the toy store! He loves to collect items from his basement and load them into the back of his camper. Does he realize he’s practicing articles when I ask him what he bought? Of course not!

Here’s a fun activity to play with young learners in the classroom (even if you don’t have a camper tent). They’ll never know they’re practicing definite and indefinite articles. Be sure to try Sprout English’s NEW lesson on Articles first! We also have a handy Articles chart and bonus exercise on our blog. (more…)

Article use varies widely among the languages of the world. Some languages, such as French, have six articles while others have none—Japanese, for example. English has three main articles, and they tend to cause a lot of problems for English language learners! Our new Articles lesson aims to simplify English article usage by providing charts and examples that make it easy for your students to tell the difference between a, an, and the. (more…)

Many languages don’t have articles, so English language learners often struggle with using a or the. Over the years, I’ve found that presenting articles (also called “determiners”) in a chart like the one below helps students see which one to use and why. When students are getting frustrated, remind them that it could be worse—they could be learning a language like French that has male/female and singular/plural articles, too!

Chart:

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