Problems that our Spanish speaking students have with the definite article 'the'

Happy new year and festive greetings! In English, when we are referring to the next or last time period in relation to the present, the definite article should be omitted. So ’el año que viene es 2015’. Thus, 2015 is the next time period after the present when we are talking about years. Due to this we don't say 'the next year' when referring to 2015. One must simply say 'next year'. Similarly, as we are in January 'el mes pasado', is December, would be 'last month' and never 'the last month' when referencing the month before the present month. Every one of our Spanish clients makes this error at some stage more than once so please be aware of it. Do text me if you have any doubts. Hope that helps.