1

Lecture 4

Asking questions

2

Aims of this lesson. To make teachers aware of basic question types and to show how they can be used for different purposes.

To show teachers how to elicit short and long answers from students in a natural way.

To make teachers aware of different possible strategies for asking questions.

3

Question types Begin by discussing why teachers ask questions in

class. Encourage teachers to think of as many reasons as they can. For example.

1)To check that students understand: when we present new vocabulary or structures, we can check that students have understood by using the new language in a question. When we present a text, we can use questions to check that students have understood it.

4

2)to give students practice: if we want students to use a certain structure, one way to do this is to ask a question that requires a particular answer.

3) To find out what students really think or know:

we can use questions to encourage students to talk about themselves and their experiences.

5

Look at the three groups of questions. What is the difference between these three

types of questions?How might you reply to each one?A: 1)Do you drink tea? 2)Can you swim? 3)Did he go to university?B: 1) Do you prefer tea or coffee? 2) Are they brothers or just friends? 3) will you walk or go by bus?C: 1) What do you usually drink? 2) where did she study? 3) how long have you known each other?

6

1)The first group of questions. Establish that:

They are Yes/ No questions. They reply can be ‘Yes’ or ‘No’, alone or

with short forms: ‘ Yes, I do’ , ‘No, I can’t. ect.

Make sure that teachers understand to form Yes/No questions.

The auxiliary verb comes first; present simple

questions use ‘do/does’, past simple questions use ‘did’.

If necessary, give teachers practice by asking a few Yes/No questions to which they can give true answers, e.g.

7

Yes/No questions can be used in class. They are especially useful for checking comprehension.

They are often easiest questions to answer- they do not require students to produce new language.

2) The Second group of questions. Establish that:They are ‘ Or’ questions (they are sometimes

called ‘alternative questions’).The reply is usually a word or phrase from the

question itself, e.g. ‘ Friends’ or ‘ They ‘re friends’, ‘in Britain or In Britain’.

Make sure teachers know way as Yes/No questions, but contain two elements-’tea or coffee’.

8

The third group of questions. Establish that:They are WH –questions ( also called ‘information questions’)With most WH –questions, it is natural to give

a short answer.So natural answer to” Whare did she study?” is ‘in Britain, not “She studied in Britain’.(a few WH –questions require long answer.)

Explain how to form WH-questions. in the same way as Yes/ No questions, but they begin with a word

‘WH-word’- When , Where, Why, How, How long …

9

Some WH –questions with ‘Who or What’ have the same structure as a normal sentence. These are called ‘ subject questions’ ,because they ask about the subject of the sentence.

Give example, e.g.Something happened. - What

happened?Someone saw him. - Who saw him?Someone knows the answer. - Who

knows the answer?Something fell over. - What fell over?

10

Questions with short answers An important use of questions is to check

that students understand a new word or phrase.

Imagine that you have just presented ‘ made of wood/ metal/ glass/ stone’. Ask a series of questions with short answers:

T: Look(pointing to table) – Is this made of wood?

Ss: Yes. T: ( pointing to wall) What about this? Is it

made of wood?Ss: No, it isn’t. T: What is it made of?Ss: Stone. ( and so on)

11

Now discuss why the students only need to give short answers. There are two reasons:

1- because it is more natural, 2- because at this stage the teacher

only wants to check that they understand. Later they can be asked to produce the new language themselves.

12

Real classroom questionsMany situation which naturally arise in the

classroom give an opportunity to ask real questions .

It will help students to feel that language is real, not just something in a textbook.

What questions could you ask in these situations?

a) It’s a hot day, and all the windows are closed.

b) one of your students looks pale and tired.

c) Several students are absent today. d) when you come into class, you find a

bag on your desk.

13

Eliciting long answers.1. Write these questions on the board: What time do you get up? What do you have for breakfast? The natural answers to these questions

would be short .( at seven o’clock’, ‘bread and cheese’)

However, in class we often want students to produce longer answers, so that they practice making complete sentences, e.g.

I get up at seven o’clock, and then I have breakfast. I usually have bread and cheese and a glass of tea.

14

Now discuss three possible ways of eliciting long answers:

1) we could ask a question and insist long answers:

T: Answer with a complete sentence. What time do you get up? S: I get up at seven o’clock. This gets students to practice language

effectively, but only by forcing them to answer in an unnatural way. As a result, the ‘conversation ‘ that takes in the class becomes artificial, and unlike real English.

15

2) We could ask a more general question which would naturally lead to a longer answer:

T: What do you do in the morning?

S: Well, I get up at seven o’clock, then I have breakfast.

This much less artificial, and allows the conversation in the classroom to be more like language spoken in real life.

16

3) Instead of asking a complete question, we could give a short ‘prompt’.

T: Tell me about your day. S: Well, I get up early, at about seven

o’clock,… T: What about breakfast? S: I have quite a small breakfast, usually

just a piece of bread and some tea…. This is often an easier and more effective

way of getting students to produce language than asking a question.

17

Questioning strategiesAs well as knowing what questions to ask,

teachers also need to know how to organize question and answer work in class. There are many different ways of asking questions:

Teachers can ask each student in turn round the class.

They can let any student call out the answer

They can choose a student to answerThey can get the class to answer in

chorus, and so on. these are called questioning strategies.(

or nomination strategies)

18

What questioning strategies they show: A) the teacher asks questions and simply lets

students call out answers. If students call out different answers at the same time, the teacher chooses one student to give the answer again.

B) The teacher asks a question, then pauses to give the whole class a chance to think of the answer. Then the teacher chooses one student to answer. Students are not allowed to call out answer or to raise their hand.

19

C)The teacher first chooses a student (by pointing or saying the student’s name), then asks the student a question. If the student can not answer it, the teacher passes it on to the next student.

D) The teacher asks a question and lets students raise their hand if they think they know answer. The teacher chooses one of the students with their hands raised to answer.

20

Homework1) Imagine that you have just presented

each of these words or phrases. Write one or two questions you could ask in class, to check that students understand each item.

Wide/ narrow, belong to, inside / outside, far from, depend on.

2) Make dialogue by using these given prompts:

Tell me about your family. Tell me about your hometown.

21

3) What are the advantages an disadvantages of each strategy?

Consider which strategies: - help the teacher to control the class - help to keep the attention of the whole

class - give good students a chance to show their

knowledge - give weak or shy students a chance to

answer - give lazy students a chance not to answer.