ESL Lesson Plan - Teaching Nouns: Countable vs Uncountable

How to Teach or Learn about Kinds Of Nouns  (Countable Vs. Uncountable)

by Elaine Kirn
Authors and Editors

So how can language instructors teach—and language students learn—how to use countable and uncountable nouns in meaningful situations that include real communication? Specialists in applied linguistics or experienced second-language instructors  suggest these steps:

Teachers present and/or students read the relevant grammar rules, principles, and patterns. Explanations should include sufficient examples. To demonstrate comprehension of the principles, learners can explain them in their own words—to other students or the whole group. As they paraphrase what they have understood, they are likely to ask or elicit good questions about the concepts. The answers should help both questioners and other learners to grasp the grammar principles at their present level of language proficiency.

Learners practice the principles, with appropriate feedback and correction, in controlled exercises or activities. (A “controlled” grammar lesson in one in which—if they follow the rules and principles appropriately—learners will probably get the correct answers.) Such activities may or may not give participants the opportunity to express their own information, thoughts, or opinions. 

Learners apply the principles to their speech and writing in less controlled, more communicative exercises or activities. For example, they might explain what they have understood from a reading, an audiotape, or a videotape or TV program. (In lessons about kinds of nouns, of course, the selected materials should contain a large number of countable nouns, both singular and plural, and uncountable nouns from different meaning categories.)

Finally, in contexts that make ample use of the presented and practiced grammar rules and patterns, students demonstrate that they have mastered the principles for use in “real life” self-expression and communication. For example, they might speak for a specified time on a topic that naturally elicits the grammar, including a wide variety of noun vocabulary items.  Or they might do some “free-writing” on the same kinds of topics. Ideas for topics with which learners can “prove” their mastery of the principles of countable and uncountable nouns appear in this book.

How can students learn to apply rules and patterns to new items in their constantly expanding vocabularies? Probably, the most effective method is to request and pay attention to correction of their speech and writing by linguistically-educated native speakers of English. A second useful technique is to observe—and imitate—the oral and written language of articulate and expressive native speakers and writers. To improve their grammar in noun usage, of course, learners should focus on the common noun vocabulary they hear and see, and how those words are used in phrasing. And finally, both students and teachers will benefit from looking up words in an English learners’ dictionary, one that identifies each noun as “countable” or “uncountable” in its various meanings and uses. They should focus on the dictionary examples, using them as phrasing models for their own use of noun vocabulary.