The English article system presents many problems for non-native speakers of English, particularly when they do not have an equivalent structure in their first language. Different approaches to the teaching of articles have attempted to overcome this problem. By encouraging students to address the notion of countability and to identify specific uses of articles in English, the ESL teacher in this study was able to improve students' understanding of this difficult area and guide them to a more accurate usage of the English article system. (Contains 1 figure.)