This study reviews the difficulties that learners of English as a second or foreign language encounter in the use of English articles and puts forward some suggestions that can help advanced learners overcome their problems. It has been observed that learner performance may be deceptive and accurate article selections may be led by inappropriate assumptions, so explicit instruction is needed to enhance learners’ explicit knowledge. In the teaching of English articles, explicit analyses using metalinguistic explanations should be used to eradicate learners’ misconceptions. Their understanding of the use of different structures for showing genericity, of the distinction between definiteness and specificity, and of the differences between English articles and similar but distinct language items in their mother tongues should be strengthened. Self-learning resources such as learners’ dictionaries can also be used to supplement teaching and learning, especially when the judgments of noun countability are at issue. It is with heightened explicit knowledge of the English article system and enhanced awareness of the use of different articles for representing different references that advanced learners will be able to master English article use competently.

中文翻译：

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使用元语言解释帮助高级 ESL/EFL 学习者克服使用英语文章和参考表示的问题

本研究回顾了英语作为第二语言或外语的学习者在使用英语文章时遇到的困难，并提出了一些有助于高级学习者克服困难的建议。已经观察到学习者的表现可能具有欺骗性，准确的文章选择可能由不适当的假设导致，因此需要明确的教学来增强学习者的明确知识。在英语文章教学中，应采用元语言解释的显式分析，以消除学习者的误解。加强他们对不同结构表示共性的理解，明确性和特异性的区别，以及英语冠词与母语中相似但不同的语言项目之间的差异。学习者词典等自学资源也可作为教学的补充，尤其是在名词可数性判断存在争议时。正是随着对英语文章系统的显性知识的提高和对使用不同文章代表不同参考文献的意识的增强，高级学习者才能胜任英语文章的使用。