Abstract
Based on previous research, the present study proposes six pedagogical principles for teaching the English articles at high school: 1)the idiomatic or conventional use of the articles should be learnt as such because there is no point in exploring an underlying rule, 2) the teaching of the generic use of the articles should be delayed until a later stage of language acquisition because it is very rare and difficult to understand, 3) whether the referent is context-unique is the best criterion for the use of the definite article and the learner should be given instruction in applying this criterion in selecting the appropriate article, 4) instruction in the countable / uncountable distinction should be given by starting with typical examples, 5) instruction in the countable / uncountable distinction should be taught by making the use of dual nouns to give the student a feel of the difference between the countable and uncountable forms of a word, 6) The student should be taught to use a dictionary to learn the countablity of new vocabulary on an item by item basis.
