BK5a
GETTING QUESTIONS FROM YOUR STUDENTS
QAQ = Question, Answer, Question.
Most useful at elementary levels where intense practice is neccesary, e.g. after intruducing a new tense or other grammatical form such as any/some where the question structure needs deliberate practice.
It involves, basically, simply asking a question, waiting for the answer and then eliciting the same question from the student via a gesture and a prompt. Thus in it's simplest form it might go:
T Where do you live?
S I live in Versailles.
T Good. (gesture) Where ......
S Where ... do you live?
The gesture used is a simple beckoning one effected with all four fingers previously referred to as a "come along" gesture.
However the technique is used to best effect - when more than a single question is required - by setting a pattern of three questions which the student then repeats and subsequently expands upon.
Let us suppose that the teacher is practicing student questions after introducing the simple present tense.
T Does Mr. Morgan smoke?
S Yes, he does.
T Does Mr Schmidt smoke?
S Yes, he does.
T Does Mr. Duval smoke?
S No, he doesn't.
T Good, (gesture) Does ....
S Does Mr. Duval smoke?
T No, he doesn't. (points at picture of
another character or whispers a name for student to use)
S Does ....... etc. (Student continues using perhaps many more names than
the original 3 invoked.)
The above is the simplest form of pattern available, suitable for a first effort at asking questions and useable with the slowest pupil. In this same context of question drill with the simple present there follow some examples of the same technique using progressively more demanding patterns.
I shall not write out the entire dialogue here but simply the 3 questions put by the teacher. It is understood that the basic rules concerning the use of short answers when appropriate and long answers to Key questions are applied.
Does Mr. Morgan smoke?
Do You smoke?
Do I smoke?
In this case the student has to switch from "does" to "do" in his questions and back again according to who the teacher is indicating as the subject of the next question he wants. Note that the teacher can point to two people or pictures at the same time to elicit "they" and to himself and the student at the same time to elicit "we".
Does Mr. Morgan smoke?
Does he speak English?
Does he read the New York Times?.
This is the simplest sequence which will get a student to apply succesive verbs. he must be made to use the proper noun in his first question and to switch to the pronoun for subsequent questions. Note that if the teacher points to other third person characters for the continuation all the student has to do is to change the name in the first sentence and perhaps "he" into "she" but if the teacher switches the drill onto himself or the sdudent he effectively upgrades the exercise as the student will have to change all his "does's into "do's" as well.
Does Mr. Morgan speak French?
Does he speak German?
What language does he speak?
Two inversion questions followed by the appropriate key question make a very neat pattern which a student can retain fairly easily and which is quite demanding as he has to use contrasting forms of question succesively. Once again a subsequent shift onto "I "or "You" is especially difficult.
Does Mr; Duval speak German?
Does Mr. Morgan speak German?
Who speaks German?
The "Who" question - an apparantly aberant form because it doesn't use an auxilliary - should get special attention. Your student may well, and from his point of view quite logically, try to say "Who does speak ...?" The above series should be preceded by a simpler but necessary series of simple successive "Who" questions.
© Mark Yates 2000