Does your first language have articles like “a” and “the”? If not, how does it show whether something is new information or already known? (e.g. Japanese and Russian have no articles, but Spanish has “el/la” and “un/una”) “In my language, we…”, Which English article rule feels the most unnatural or illogical to you, and why? (e.g. “in hospital” but “at the cinema”) “The rule that confuses me most is…”, Does your language have grammatical gender, cases or other features that do some of the same work as articles? (e.g. German changes “der” to “den” or “dem” depending on its role in the sentence) “In my language, instead of articles, we use…”, When you translate a sentence from your language into English, at what point do you decide which article to use? Do you think about it consciously? (e.g. adding “the” only when you reread your writing) “When I write in English, I usually…”, Have you ever had a misunderstanding, or heard a funny mistake, because of a missing or wrong article in English or another language? (e.g. “I have a dog” vs “I have dog”) “Once, I said… and the other person thought…”, If you speak a third language, how do its articles compare to English and your first language? (e.g. French uses “le” for general statements: “J’aime le chocolat” but “I love chocolate”) “Compared to English, my other language…”, Can you think of a word or expression that is countable in your language but uncountable in English? How do you remember it? (e.g. “an advice” ✗ → “some advice” / “a piece of advice” ✓) “In my language, the word ___ is countable, but in English…”, Do you think article mistakes really matter for communication, or are they just about sounding natural? Does it depend on the situation, such as an essay versus a conversation? (e.g. a job application vs a chat with friends) “I think article mistakes matter more when…”, Some languages use word order or demonstratives (“this,” “that”) instead of articles. Does your language do this? Can you give an example? (e.g. in Russian, putting a noun at the start of a sentence often shows that it’s known information) “In my language, we show that something is known by…”, What strategies have you used to improve your accuracy with articles, and which have worked best? (e.g. noticing articles while reading, or checking each noun when proofreading) “One strategy that has helped me is…”

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