Today, I was teaching a class of two Chinese students. They are both eight years old but have a strong and developing English level. They were writing examples of countable and uncountable nouns on the board. When we came to uncountable, one of them wrote down “leaves.” When we were reviewing later, her classmate, startled, said, “But leaves are countable. We can count them. One leaf. Two leaves. Three leaves.”
From day one in my English teaching journey, the concept of countable and uncountable nouns has caused a dilemma.
I have done tests with students involving filling in the gaps with “a,” “an,” or “some,” but where the nouns in question could have been seen as both countable and uncountable. Should it be “a salad” or “some salad”? Should it be “a lemonade” or “some lemonade”? Yes, these were in the context of teaching food and the situation of being in a restaurant. Both items here might be those that we teach as uncountable, suggesting that we should use “some.” The issue is, in the context of food and drink, we might be considering one unit — for example, “a salad” really means “a bowl of salad,” or even “a portion of salad (such as is on the menu).” For lemonade, “a lemonade” really means “a glass of lemonade.”
What is challenging is that native speakers will often leave out the measure word — bowl, glass, or portion, for example. Perhaps we take it to be assumed. We begin to have to consider a mix of grammar and technicalities, and how English might naturally be used.
Want more complexity? Well, I’ll be open here, as this is an area where, as native speakers, we might all be different. But to me, it is different for other nouns. “I want fries, please.” sounds more natural than “I want a fries, please.” Similarly, “I want noodles, please.” over “I want a noodles.” (Although in both cases, the other does still work for me.) Perhaps it is because “fries” and “noodles” sound very plural — actually, they are plural words — even when here we might be technically seeing them as uncountable.
During my English teaching career, I have even found situations in which I focus strictly on which article or lack thereof to use when teaching a food or drink noun, only to find this is different from what students may have heard or learned elsewhere.
We return now to my students today and the leaf. After the boy’s explanation, the girl took some thinking time. Then she said, “But I still think it can be uncountable. Sometimes there are many leaves on the ground. Some of them are even broken. They are small bits of leaf. We can’t count this.”
Take some time to think about this. It really is a beautiful point.
Today, we also discussed that many nouns can be seen as both countable and uncountable, especially for food. Take cake, for example. You can definitely consider whole cakes, which means you are in the countable realm. However, often we wouldn’t think of the whole cake as “one cake,” but rather what we are having, quite simply, as “some cake.” To make this countable, you could say “a slice of cake,” “a piece of cake,” or even “a bowl of cake,” as one of the students noted. Pizza is similar. So is fish and other seafood.
What does this mean for our teaching?
Well, our goal is always (or almost always — some situations might be different) to guide students to develop their English naturally, through comprehensible input and hearing language used by native speakers. That said, it is true that it may be difficult for them to have access to the same volume and contexts of exposure as natives, so we may have to be more structured.
This certainly isn’t an area to worry about until students are far enough in their understanding and appreciation of English to be able to use it.
When we are teaching nouns where articles or the lack thereof might come into play — food always being a prime example — introduce them through examples such as “I want a coke, please,” ensuring consistency with what students might learn elsewhere, but focusing more on the vocabulary and the overall sentence.
Then, when students are ready, the issue can be discussed with them. Perhaps focus on what “countable” and “uncountable” actually mean. Practice classifying. Allow room for open discussion about abstract cases, such as the leaf that came up for me today. Highlight with examples how some nouns could be seen as both, and in each case, show what we would be thinking when we see them as countable, and what we would be thinking when we see them as uncountable. This will certainly give an opportunity for deeper understanding about what is actually going on here.
Around the same time, highlight to them that when we want to make an uncountable noun countable, we need our measure word — for example, “a cup of coke.” You could even show them at this stage that native speakers might often leave out the measure word. However, this is only something to be aware of. Focus on the measure words for now, so as not to make it overly confusing. This will have the added benefit of ensuring they are accurate with their language use. Over time, with further exposure to natural English, they can have the opportunity to become more familiar.
An ultimate goal is, of course, natural communication. It is rare that challenges with communication of meaning would occur in this area. Even if they did, our students might be able to work to resolve them in the moment. This would then only be a learning opportunity in itself.