Imagine you ask:
What is your favourite flavour of ice cream?

Of course, many will raise their hands to answer.

My favourite flavour of ice cream is .....

After six or eight reponses, I stop and change the person in the question. For example:

What is MiYoung's favourite flavour of ice cream?
OR
Who likes chocolate ice cream? (name on person)
Or
Who eats strawberry ice cream?

This technique not only allows a teacher to ascertain which students are listening, but it also promotes practise with the problematic 's' ending on verbs in the third person (likes, eats, etc....)

Imagine you ask:
What is your favourite flavour of ice cream?

Of course, many will raise their hands to answer.

My favourite flavour of ice cream is .....

After six or eight reponses, I stop and change the person in the question. For example:

What is MiYoung's favourite flavour of ice cream?
OR
Who likes chocolate ice cream? (name on person)
Or
Who eats strawberry ice cream?

This technique not only allows a teacher to ascertain which students are listening, but it also promotes practise with the problematic 's' ending on verbs in the third person (likes, eats, etc....)

Don't be afraid to ask the same question again and again and again in different classes. Repetition is essential in developing speaking skills. Simply stated, repetition develops fluency. It is also important to remember that by repeating the same question, students will hear the sentence answer over and over again so, in a small way, they are developing their listening skills as well.

For example, in almost every beginner class this semester, I have asked for the capital city of a country. I do this because the structure is basic (The capital of ________ is ______) and also because it helps Korean students remember the names of foreign cities and countries. Does this have anything to do with the topic of the class? Usually not but in most homework exercises, there is at least one reference to a country, city, culture or some ethinic element. Therefore, by asking a relevant question, the teacher is expanding the topic and the conversation.

If you're going to ask questions, obviously you need to find some. Fortunately, they are usually right in front of you in the exercises that you do in class or assign for homework.

Today, for example, the following future-tense sentence appeared in their homework:

This pizza is so delicious you'll want to have two.

Pizza! What a great topic for Q&A. The moment I saw that sentence, a question hit me that I asked the class.
What is your favourite pizza?

After listening to about 8 responses, I changed the question slightly:
When did you last have pizza?

At least 75% of the students raised their hands to respond because, while the future statement was part of their homework, the questions extened into their daily lives. This is the type of information that they want to share.

I have been involved in language teaching since 1988. During that time, I have discovered one universal truth when it comes to student-talk: ask LOTS of questions. Questions, questions, questions. This, in my opinion, is the simplest and quickest way to get students speaking. Furthermore, since question asking is the foundation of practically ever oral test ranging from the IELTS to a placement test to a job interview, students will receive a great deal of practice.

Q&A offers many benefits which I will address in this blog. Each post will have a tip on how to maximize Q&A in your lessons. I hope you find the tips useful. Good luck in your classes.

Tip #1 -Keep Track
You can easily keep a record of the frequency in which individual students respond to questions. Take a class list or attendance sheet, write 'Q&A Record' at the top and make mulitiple copies. Before starting each class, take a fresh record and write the date on the top. Each time a student answers, make a mark beside his or her name. After class, put that Q&A record in a special place. At the end of the semester, you will have a chronological stack of Q&A records and, by scanning them quickly with your eyes, you can easily identify the activie speakers in the class. This provides you with concrete evidence as to which students participated and which ones remained silent.

To make recording easier in the classroom, I put the Q&A record on a clipboard. That clipboard is only for Q&A. After one or two classes, the students understand the purpose of the clipboard and, as soon as I pick it up, hands are in the air long before I finish asking the first question.


By the way, this is not my original idea. I learned it from Mr. Gilles Gallant, my high school French langauge teacher who never tired of asking questions.