Author: British Council | Published on 1 July 2022
Stage 1: Present examples
Write these sentences on the board and underline as shown. Ask. “What do you notice about these questions?”
- Where do you live?
- What do you have for breakfast?
- Why are you learning English?
- How do you get to school?
- How are you?
To help learners:
- get learners to match the question words (Where, How etc) with the uses: where = place; when = time; why = reason; how = the way things are / the way people feel.
- ask learners to match the questions with the following answers: 1. I’m fine. 2. Because it is useful. 3. In Dakar. 4. I have fruit. and 5. By bus.
- focus on the word order of questions: question word + auxiliary verb + subject + main verb. Use L1 if necessary.
Stage 2: Take feedback
Ask learners to share their feedback on what they noticed in the examples. Some key points you might want to share with them include:
The use of questions words is
- where = place
- when = time
- what = things / actions
- why = reason
- how = the way things are / the way people feel
The word order in questions is:
question word + auxiliary verb + subject + main verb.
When we ask a question using a question word, the answer is not Yes / No, but information must be given.
Stage 3: Use the grammar
a. What’s the question word?
Write the following sentences on the board and say: “Complete the questions with the correct question word.”
a.________ are my shoes?
b.________ was your lesson?
c._______ does school start?
d._______ were you late?
b. Word order.
Write up the following jumbled questions on the board and say: “Put the words in the correct order to make questions.”
a.you / are / how / feeling / ?
b.go / you / where / to school / do / ?
c.are / why / crying / you / ?
d.get up / do / when / you / ?
c. Dialogue
Write up the following question on the board:
What are you doing?
Put learners in pairs and say: “Act out a short dialogue – 3 turns each – starting with this question by student A. Student A should try to ask a question each time it’s their turn.”
Monitor and help when necessary.